The Palestinians need to show flexibility and get back to the negotiating table, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said in an interview with Egypt's Al-Hayat TV released Saturday.

Asked about the Palestinians' quest for full recognition at the United Nations, the top U.S. diplomat appeared to try to downplay the importance of the ongoing effort, which Washington opposes and has promised to veto.

Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez on Saturday reiterated his support for ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling them "brothers."

"I ask God for the life of our brother Gadhafi... No one knows where Gadhafi is, I think he went to the desert," Chavez told official television VTV.

A man claiming to be Moussa Ibrahim, spokesman for Moammar Gadhafi, denied on Saturday claims he had been captured by forces of the country's new regime outside of the deposed Libyan leader's hometown of Sirte.

"This information is a lie and does not reflect reality," the man said in a live telephone interview with Syrian-based Arrai television, which has become a conduit for declarations by Gadhafi and other elements of his former regime.

Five Yemeni soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack on the southern city of Zinjibar during an operation aimed at rooting out militants linked to Al-Qaeda, a medical source said.

The fighting comes a day after one of the extremist group's top leaders in the Arabian Peninsula country, U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, was killed in an apparent U.S. drone strike.

Egypt's military rulers agreed on Saturday to amend a controversial electoral law following threats of a poll boycott by dozens of political parties and a rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square for reforms.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, agreed to amend the new law to allow political parties to field candidates in the one-third of seats that had previously been reserved for independent candidates, the official MENA agency reported.

Four workers were killed and two employees injured in a gas pipe explosion on Saturday at Kuwait's largest refinery of Mina al-Ahmadi, Kuwait national refiner said.

The explosion took place at the Gas Liquefaction Plant at the refinery during maintenance works, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency.

Egypt's military chief of staff Sami Enan met party leaders on Saturday, a day after protesters converged on Cairo's central Tahrir Square to demand reforms.

The meeting came hours after scuffles and stone-throwing broke out in Tahrir Square as army troops attempted to remove protesters who wanted to stage a sit-in.

The Syrian National Council, which is trying to unite opponents to the regime of President Bashar Assad, was holding negotiations behind closed doors in Istanbul on Saturday.

Several opposition movements are trying to reach an alliance, a member of the SNC Halit Hoca told Agence France Presse.

Representatives of Syria's six-month-old protest movement joined opposition parties in Turkey on Saturday to forge a united front against Bashar Assad's regime after violence claimed at least 19 more lives.

Clashes between security forces and deserters killed 11 people in a village in Hama province on Friday, while another eight died during a crackdown on protests in flashpoint Homs, human rights activists said.

Voters turned out in low numbers for a second round of by-elections in Bahrain on Saturday boycotted by the Gulf state's Shiite opposition, witnesses said.

The elections were held to replace 18 MPs of the main Shiite opposition formation Al-Wefaq, who resigned in February shortly after Shiite-led protests sparked a deadly response from authorities in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.