Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the conflict in Syria, the Kremlin said, amid concerns Moscow plans to deliver advanced missiles to the Damascus regime.

"During the meeting an exchange of opinion is planned on key aspects of bilateral ties," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and the European Union mission in Lebanon denied reports that the EU could withdraw its troops affiliated in United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“EU Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst didn't relay a warning backed by U.S. that it would withdraw its troops over Lebanon's slackness in preventing abduction of UNIFIL members,” according to a statement issued by the EU mission in Lebanon and received by the Naharnet.

Vice Admiral John Miller, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, said on Sunday that a massive naval minesweeping exercise involving 41 countries was not directed at Iran.

"It is not about Iran," Miller said at a news conference in the Bahraini capital Manama, the fleet's headquarters, saying the maneuvers were "purely defensive".

Israeli opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich on Sunday urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to seize the chance of resuming peace negotiations as the two met for talks at his West Bank headquarters.

According to a statement from her office, the two discussed "the situation in the Middle East and the chances of making progress between Israel and the Palestinians".

Israel has opened a new diplomatic mission in the Gulf, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday, citing Finance Ministry costings for 2014 prepared for submission to the government this week.

"The paper is an economic plan for the next year and does not name the location of the new mission," Haaretz said.

Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is "fully determined" to try to halt sales by Russia of advanced missiles to Syria when he visits Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, a minister said Sunday.

A reported Russian plan to sell Damascus S-300 missile batteries "worries us at the highest level and the prime minister is fully determined that this contract should not be fulfilled," Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom, a member of the security cabinet, told public radio.

Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the northern West Bank hurled stones at each other on Saturday after the settlers marched into the village of Burin, witnesses said.

One villager was slightly hurt in the hand by a stone and another passed out from tear gas fired by troops trying to separate the two sides, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin, officials said Saturday, amid concerns Moscow may be about to deliver advanced missiles to Syria.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the visit to Agence France Presse, but declined to give details, although he told the Interfax news agency it was being planned for next week.

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri whose award-winning film "The Attack" has been banned in Lebanon said on Friday that the Arab League has asked its member states to take steps to prevent the film being shown.

"The Arab League has asked Arab governments, Lebanon included, to withdraw the permit to distribute the film," he told Agence France Presse in Paris.

Rebels in Syria's Golan have posted a new video online showing four Filipino U.N. peacekeepers they abducted earlier this week, with the men apparently unharmed, restating that their action aimed to protect the soldiers.

"The Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade's leadership announces it is responsible for saving four members of the U.N. force from an area of battles pitting (rebel) brigade members against criminals from gangs loyal to (President Bashar) Assad," an unnamed spokesman said in the video.