Pope Francis expressed readiness to visit Lebanon during a trip planned to the Holly Land, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the daily, contacts are ongoing with the Vatican to convince the pontiff to make a brief visit to Beirut during his first trip to the Holy Land, visiting Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem in May.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian leaders Sunday of "inciting hatred," as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region to push peace talks forward.

"The Palestinians are continuing their campaign of inciting hatred, as we have seen in the last few days with their refusal to recognize Israel as a state for the Jewish people," Netanyahu told a weekly cabinet meeting.

Pope Francis said Sunday he will make his first trip to the Holy Land, visiting Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem from May 24 to 26.

"In the climate of joy typical of this Christmas period, I would like to announce that from May 24 to 26, God willing, I will carry out a pilgrimage to the Holy Land," Francis told crowds gathered in St Peter's Square for the traditional Angelus prayer.

More than 30,000 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally protested in Tel Aviv on Sunday, police said, in the biggest rally ever staged by migrants in the Jewish state.

"More than 30,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in Tel Aviv," police spokeswoman Lubra Samri told Agence France Presse.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was on Sunday facing "imminent" death, the Tel Aviv hospital where he is in critical condition said.

The health of the 85-year-old Sharon, who was dubbed "the Bulldozer" both for his style and physique, has been worsening since Wednesday when he suffered serious kidney problems after surgery.

Israel rejects any U.S.-proposed security concessions for the Jordan Valley, a cabinet member close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, as U.S. Secretary John Kerry visited the Middle East.

"Security must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or technological means ... does not understand the Middle East," Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israeli public radio.

Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday rejected Israeli and Palestinian remarks the U.S. was biased as he made a whistlestop tour of allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia to woo support for his peace plan.

Kerry promised any agreed plan would be "fair and balanced" and likened his efforts to broker a compromise between the conflicting demands of the two sides to a puzzle.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Saturday he was making progress in tough talks with Israel and the Palestinians, but admitted more time was needed to agree a framework to guide the negotiations.

The top U.S. diplomat emerged from his second round of talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to say everyone was "working with great intensity" and commitment to try to overcome decades of animosity.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was Saturday seeking to brush aside bitter recriminations and push forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on a third day of shuttle diplomacy.

After five months of mostly sticking to a deal not to air their grievances in public, the mutual distrust between the sides has burst into the open with the top U.S. diplomat's 10th trip back to Israel.

The condition of Israeli ex-premier Ariel Sharon, who has been comatose for eight years, was unchanged Saturday, his hospital said, a day after revealing he was in a "slow, gradual" decline.

"There was no significant change in Ariel Sharon's condition during the course of the (Jewish) sabbath. His conditions remains critical and his life is in danger," Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv, said in its first official bulletin since Friday morning.