AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to unveil his Middle East peace policy on Sunday, but observers do not expect him to bow to US pressure and back a Palestinian state.

AFP - Israel was left "perplexed" by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's unprecedented meeting with an official from Lebanon's Hezbollah, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

AFP - Syria's official press voiced rare optimism on Sunday over US efforts to reach peace in the Middle East, after a visit to Damascus by a top-ranking American envoy.

Reuters - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a major policy speech on Sunday that officials say will outline his vision of how to advance the peace process with the Palestinians and the Arab world.

AFP - Four Palestinian were wounded when Israeli warplanes staged raids on contraband tunnels between the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Egypt, officials said on Sunday.

AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to back the creation of a Palestinian state in his key Middle East peace policy speech on Sunday, observers said.

AFP - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana held unprecedented talks with a Hezbollah official on Saturday, during a Beirut visit to reaffirm Europe's support for Lebanon after last week's polls.

AFP - Two Palestinians were wounded when Hamas-run police fired into the air to disperse a demonstration against Palestinian divisions on Saturday, two years after Hamas seized power in Gaza, witnesses said.

AP - The European Union's foreign affairs chief held talks Saturday with a Hezbollah legislator in the first meeting between a senior EU diplomat and the Iranian-backed militant Shiite group.

AP - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was honored by the Palestinian government Saturday and pledged to support the Palestinians' campaign for independence to the end of his days.

AFP - Around 250 people protested on Saturday the indictment of 12 Israeli Arabs for lynching an Israeli soldier after he opened fire on a bus and killed four people in a deadly rampage in 2005.

AP - President Barack Obama's special Mideast envoy said Saturday that Syria has a key role to play in forging peace in the region during a visit that marked the strongest U.S. push yet to improve relations with the country.

AFP - An 18-year-old Palestinian died on Saturday from an electric shock inside a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, according to Palestinian medics.

AFP - Saad Hariri said on Friday that dialogue was the only way of tackling Hezbollah's weapons after his Western-backed coalition defeated the Iranian-backed Shiite group and its allies in a general election.

AFP - The United States will not sacrifice Lebanon as it seeks to reach comprehensive peace in the Middle East, US envoy George Mitchell said on Friday in Beirut before heading to Syria.

AFP - The father of an Israeli soldier held by militants in the Gaza Strip for almost three years on Friday asked former US president Jimmy Carter to deliver a letter to Hamas.