BRUSSELS:

The European Union has agreed on an aid scheme for Palestinians bypassing the Hamas-led government and said it was close to winning the backing of the United States and other Middle East peace brokers.

"The European Council has endorsed our proposal for a temporary international mechanism," European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin told a news briefing of an agreement reached by the bloc's 25 member states at a summit in Brussels.

WASHINGTON:

In a vote charged with election-year politics, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution on Friday that wrapped the Iraq conflict into the war on terrorism and rejected a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal.

The House voted 256-153 largely on party lines for the resolution that sparked two days of emotional debate as Republicans sought to depict Democrats as weak on terrorism while Democrats decried President George W. Bush's policies that they said led to chaos in Iraq and detracted from the fight against al Qaida.

WASHINGTON:

With U.S. officials concerned North Korea is preparing to test an intercontinental missile, the State Department has warned Pyongyang against going ahead with what it said would be a provocation.

If the test did take place, it would be Pyongyang's first test of a long-range missile since it stunned the world in August 1998 by firing a Taepodong 1 over Japan that landed in the Pacific Ocean.

MOSCOW:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday introduced a new twist into the hot debate of who will succeed him, saying the Kremlin's top job might end up with an as yet unknown outsider.

The identity of who will replace Putin when he steps down in 2008 is the country's hottest political topic, with Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at present seen as strong possibles to follow him.

KILINOCHCHI, SRI LANKA:

Sri Lanka's air force bombed areas around the headquarters of Tamil Tiger rebels for a second night on Friday as victims of a suspected rebel civilian bus ambush were buried ina mass grave.

Jets raided areas near the de facto rebel capital Kilinochchi at first light, but attacks then ceased apparently while the funerals of the 64 people killed in Thursday's attack were held. Witnesses said bombing resumed at nightfall.

KATHMANDU:

Nepal's government has agreed to dissolve parliament and set up an interim administration including Maoist rebels after a day of top-level peace talks in the capital, the two sides said.