Israel's Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon apologized Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after he accused the American of having an "obsession" with Middle East peace, sparking a furious diplomatic row between the two allies.

The White House had described Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon's initial comments as "offensive," in a mark of the degree of outrage in Washington at the latest public spat between the two countries, which follows a major row over Iran policy.

Charity organisations pledged $400 million (292 million euros) Tuesday to help alleviate the humanitarian plight of Syrians affected by their country's civil war, participants at a meeting of charitable NGOs said.

Kuwait's International Islamic Charitable Organisation said Kuwaiti charities pledged $142 million, while dozens of NGOs attending the meeting promised the rest.

A senior U.S. official on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow a complaint by Israel's defense minister that John Kerry has a messianic "obsession" with Middle East peace.

The official made the highly unusual demand as fresh tension erupted between the governments of President Barack Obama and of Netanyahu after the minister, Moshe Yaalon, was quoted as branding the U.S. secretary of state, who has made 10 trips to Israel since March, a nuisance.

French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that 700 people had left France to join the fighting in Syria in what he called a "worrying" trend.

"A certain number of young Frenchmen and young foreigners living in France... are fighting in Syria -- 700 are listed, that's a lot. Some are dead," Hollande told a press conference in Paris.

Protesters fired shots at Libya's parliament building in Tripoli Tuesday, hitting it several times and prompting the session to be suspended but causing no casualties, a lawmaker told Agence France Presse.

Demonstrators have attacked or broken into the General National Congress (GNC) building several times in the past, either trying to force the adoption of laws or to air other grievances.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on Tuesday for a shift in government policy towards Syria after years of vocal opposition to the Damascus regime.

His comments came just a week ahead of peace talks aimed at ending the civil war in Syria that are due to open in Switzerland on January 22.

Human Rights Watch called on international donors gathering for a Syria aid conference in Kuwait Wednesday to demand access for relief deliveries to civilians trapped by the fighting.

"Syrian authorities have... been unwilling to allow access into besieged areas or civilians to leave towns where an estimated 288,000 people are trapped with little or no aid," the New York-based group said on Tuesday.

A Saudi court sentenced two suspected al-Qaida members to death on Tuesday for the 2007 murder of four French expatriates near the western city of Medina, a judicial source said.

The two men were convicted of shooting dead the four French nationals while they were on a desert excursion from their homes in the capital Riyadh.

Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been flown to Paris for a "routine check-up" at the same military hospital where he was treated last year for a mini-stroke, his office said Tuesday.

"Bouteflika has been at the Val-de-Grace hospital since Monday for a routine medical check-up," his office said in a statement quoted by Algerian media, adding that his general condition was improving "surely" and "steadily."

A Palestinian minister on Tuesday accused "terrorists" fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad of blocking aid access to the Yarmuk refugee camp in southern Damascus.

Rebels control swathes of Yarmuk, but for months government forces have imposed a suffocating siege on the camp, where some 20,000 Palestinians live despite terrible shortages.