U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan pushed for an immediate transition in Yemen during two days of talks with high level government officials in Sanaa, the U.S. embassy there said Wednesday.

"It is essential for all parties to participate in a peaceful political process in order to address the urgent needs of the Yemeni people for improved social, economic and security conditions," he said.

Pakistan threatened Tuesday to pull back troops from the Afghan border in response to U.S. aid cuts, defying American demands to open new fronts in the war on al-Qaida and escalating tensions with Washington.

"I think the next step is, the government or the armed forces will move the soldiers from the border areas," Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the English-language Express 24/7 television.

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday lashed out at U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's disclosure that American forces are keeping up unilateral attacks on Iran-backed insurgents in Iraq.

Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Obeidi charged in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, that Panetta had "openly mocked Iraq's sovereignty and flaunted security agreements" signed by Washington and Baghdad in November 2008.

The United States summoned Syria's charge d'affaires on Monday, accusing Damascus of failing to meet its international obligations after angry mobs besieged the U.S. and French embassies.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described those storming the U.S. embassy -- for the second time in three days -- as "thugs" and said they had been "chased off" by U.S. Marines.

Angry mobs stormed the American and French embassies in Syria on Monday, after the two Western envoys visited the city of Hama, a flashpoint for protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The foreign ministry in Paris said three French staff were wounded in the embassy attack, while a U.S. official said "no staff were injured."

A senior U.S. official denied Sunday that the U.S. envoy to Syria had been summoned by Syria's foreign office and accused Damascus of orchestrating violent protests over the weekend at the U.S. embassy.

Tensions have been escalating for months between Damascus and Washington over the Syrian government's crackdown on months of opposition protests seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

A top aide to U.S. President Barack Obama called Sunday on Yemen's injured President Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign a deal transferring power, during a face-to-face meeting in Saudi Arabia.

Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978, received top U.S. counter-terrorism official John Brennan in a hospital in Riyadh where he is recovering after being badly burned in a bomb attack at his presidential palace last month.

Former U.S. First Lady Betty Ford died Friday at the age of 93, drawing tributes for her inspiring role notably in helping treat drug and alcohol addicts at her California-based health center.

The widow of president Gerald Ford, who died in 2006, was also hailed for campaigning for breast cancer awareness and was outspoken on women's rights issues.

Washington summoned the Syrian ambassador for talks this week after reports that embassy staff had filmed U.S. protests against the crackdown in Syria, the State Department said Friday.

Ambassador Imad Mustapha was called in to meet with top State Department officials "to express a number of our concerns with the reported actions of certain Syrian embassy staff in the United States," the agency said.

Former Premier Saad Hariri does not intend to return to Beirut soon after receiving information from Western leaders about the possibility of being targeted in an assassination plot, sources close to the Mustaqbal movement leader said in remarks published Friday.

The sources said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and high-ranking U.S. and U.N. officials have warned him about the plot.