A group of 50 countries supporting sanctions against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime on Tuesday issued a statement denouncing continued arms sales to Damascus.

After meeting in Paris, the countries expressed "strong disapproval of any financial or other support, in particular the continuation of arms sales to the Syrian regime", in a clear reference to Russia.

Egypt's electoral commission confirmed on Tuesday that 10 candidates have been barred from running for president, ruling out a challenge by two Islamists and Hosni Mubarak's ex-spy chief.

"The commission rejected all appeals presented by the 10" candidates among 23 who applied to stand in the election scheduled for next month, said the official MENA news agency.

The six Gulf monarchies meeting in Doha on Tuesday condemned as "provocative" a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to an island claimed by both Abu Dhabi and Tehran.

The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council "strongly condemn the Iranian president's visit to Abu Musa which is a provocative act and a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over its three islands," they said in a joint statement.

France's Alain Juppe plans has invited several of his fellow foreign ministers to talks in Paris on Thursday on ways to boost the pressure on Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, a government source said.

The official said the meeting and the guest list were not finalized, but that Juppe hoped to host around a dozen ministers, some of whom will be in the region already for NATO talks in nearby Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday urged Bahrain to save a jailed activist on hunger strike whose health is now "a matter of the utmost urgency."

A day after protesters climbed onto the roof of the Bahraini embassy in London in support of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, Ashton said there was "serious and profound concern" in the European Union about the case.

Libyan officials on Tuesday denied that Tunisians were kidnapped in the border zone of the two countries as claimed by the Tunisian foreign ministry.

"We deny this information. There was no kidnapping of any Tunisians," interior ministry spokesman Abdelmonem Ayad told Agence France Presse without elaborating.

Anti-regime activists in Syria on Tuesday advised fellow citizens to be well prepared and have their facts ready ahead of a visit by a U.N. team set to tour the country to monitor a fragile ceasefire.

In messages posted on several Facebook pages, the activists listed 10 key points to keep in mind as the monitors prepare to visit several hot spots across the strife-torn country and speak to the local population.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula militants are holding a Saudi diplomat kidnapped in Yemen's southern city of Aden, in a bid to secure the release of prisoners and collect a ransom, the kingdom's state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.

An AQAP member confirmed in a telephone call to the Saudi ambassador in Sanaa that the group "is responsible for the kidnapping of the deputy consul in Aden, saying that their demands include handing over several prisoners to members of the network in Yemen," SPA said.

A top Jordanian Salafist leader said on Tuesday eight Sunni jihadists have been arrested as they tried to cross the border into neighboring Syria to fight President Bashar Assad's forces.

"The Jordanian authorities have recently arrested eight jihadists as they attempted to go to Syria for jihad. They are currently in the Zarqa prison waiting for prosecutors to charge them," Abed Shehadeh, known as Abu Mohammad Tahawi, told Agence France Presse.

Advance team leader Colonel Ahmed Himmiche acknowledged on Tuesday that a hard-won U.N. military observer mission to oversee a Syria ceasefire will be "difficult."

"We need to move forward little step by little step," the Moroccan officer told reporters.