More than a month after Iraq's parliamentary elections, the country's top leaders remain locked in talks to form a government while facing pressure from Washington to exclude Tehran-backed armed groups.

A top Hamas official said that talks in Miami on Friday to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire must aim to end Israeli truce "violations" in the Palestinian territory.

France's president warned Thursday that Paris would not support the EU's trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur without stronger safeguards for its farmers, as leaders gathered for summit talks in Brussels.

"I want to tell our farmers, who have been making France's position clear all along: we consider that we are not there yet, and the deal cannot be signed" as it currently stands, President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, vowing France would oppose any "attempt to force this through".

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukrainian and U.S. delegations would hold new talks on Friday and Saturday in the United States aiming to end the Russian invasion.

"On Friday and Saturday, our team will be in the United States of America; they are already on their way... and the Americans are waiting for them," Zelensky told reporters, adding that European officials may also attend the talks.

A senior Ukrainian diplomat announced on Thursday he had arrived in Beijing, a close ally of Russia, where he was expected to hold talks with Chinese diplomats.

"Busy day ahead in Beijing," Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya wrote on social media.

Israeli strikes targeted Thursday heights in Jouroud al-Hermel in eastern Lebanon and several other regions in the south.

In the east, the strikes targeted Zaghrine. In the south, the Israeli military struck Iqlim al-Tuffah, al-Jabbour and al-Rihan heights, and Zawtar near the Litani river.

Belgium insisted on Thursday that its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine.

At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation bloc's leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraine's military and financial needs over the next two years.

China told the United States on Thursday to "immediately stop" arming Taiwan, after Taipei said Washington had approved the sale of $11 billion of weapons to the island.

"China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle... and immediately stop the dangerous actions of arming Taiwan," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press conference.

Ukrainian drone attacks overnight Thursday killed three people in Russia's Rostov region, the regional governor said, as the conflict rages on despite US efforts to stop the fighting.

An attack caused a fire on a cargo ship in the port of the regional capital, killing two crew members and injuring three, acting regional governor Yuri Sliusar said on Telegram. The blaze was later extinguished.

Major cities in Sudan including capital Khartoum and Port Sudan were plunged into darkness on Thursday, several witnesses told AFP, after deadly drone strikes targeted a key power plant in the east of the country.

Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke rising in the town of Atbara in River Nile State, which is controlled by the army in its ongoing war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).