Seventeen fighters of Libya's new regime were killed and 50 wounded in clashes with Moammar Gadhafi loyalists in the desert town of Bani Walid, a military official in Tripoli said on Monday.

"We lost 17 fighters in fierce clashes on Sunday and our forces have withdrawn from the airport where they had taken control," said Salem Gheith, head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) military command center.

Israelis were on Monday officially advised to steer clear of the Sinai peninsula in neighboring Egypt during the upcoming Jewish festival of Sukkot, the anti-terror bureau said in a statement.

"In light of the upcoming holiday of Sukkot, the anti-terror bureau reiterates its severe travel warning in respect to the Sinai, and recommends against travelling there," it said, urging all Israelis currently staying to "leave the area immediately" and return to Israel.

A Syrian army defector has called for military aid to help his armed opposition group topple the Damascus regime, in an interview published in Turkey on Monday.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who defected in July, appealed for weapons for an armed opposition group he set up called the "Syrian Free Army".

At least 14 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed in clashes across Syria, with the flashpoint city of Homs turning into a battle zone, activists said on Monday.

Seven of 14 civilians killed on Sunday were gunned down by security forces in the city of central Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that seven others were killed in other towns.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will travel to Doha on Monday to hold talks with the Qatari emir, the official SUNA news agency reported.

"The president will hold talks with His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, emir of Qatar, dealing with the promotion of bilateral relations between the two countries and issues of common interest," SUNA said.

The European Union is set to hail the formation of a Syrian opposition bloc as "a positive step forward", according to a draft EU foreign ministers' statement seen by Agence France Presse on Monday.

In the draft statement, the ministers, referring to the Syrian National Council (SNC), say the EU "welcomes the efforts of the population to establish a united platform" and "notes the creation of the SNC as a positive step forward".

Israeli President Shimon Peres has sent a letter of condolence to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the death of his mother, the Anatolia news agency reported Monday.

"From my experience, I know very well the deep sense of grief, feeling like an orphan and the boundless sorrow of your loss," Peres was quoted as saying in the letter.

Forty women were wounded in Yemen's second largest city when regime supporters attacked an all-female street celebration of the Nobel Peace prize win of Tawakkul Karman, medical officials said Monday.

The women were attacked on Sunday evening in the city of Taez as they marched in support of Karman, the first Arab woman to win the prestigious award.

The Egyptian government was set for crisis talks on Monday after clashes left 24 people dead, raising fears of widespread sectarian unrest that threatens to widen the cracks in an already fragile transition from Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was to convene an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon, state television reported.

Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

The rioting lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the state television building along the Nile, where the trouble began. The military clamped a curfew on the area until 7 a.m.