Qatar, a key supporter of Islamists who rose to power in Arab Spring countries, is losing ground in regional politics to Saudi Arabia which appears to have seized the reins on key issues, notably Egypt and Syria.

The decline in Qatar's regional diplomacy comes as its powerful emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani unexpectedly abdicated in favor of his son Tamim last month.

Kuwait offered Egypt on Wednesday an aid package of $4 billion, a minister said, bringing to $12 billion the total pledges by Gulf monarchies to Cairo since the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last week.

"The council of ministers has approved an urgent aid package to our brothers in Egypt following instructions from the emir," State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah al-Sabbah said, according to the official KUNA news agency.

Activists in Aleppo have held protests calling for the lifting of a rebel siege of regime-held districts of Syria's second city that has created food shortages, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the first demonstration calling for the siege to be lifted came on Tuesday, adding that one protester was shot dead.

Islamic extremists fighting in Syria pose one of the most worrying threats to Britain and its allies, particularly if they gain access to the regime's stocks of chemical weapons, parliament's intelligence committee said on Wednesday.

In their annual report, lawmakers said the consequences of Al-Qaeda-linked extremists getting hold of President Bashar Assad's reported stocks of the sarin and VX nerve agents, ricin and mustard gas would be "catastrophic".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned on Wednesday an assault on an ultra-Orthodox soldier by coreligionists in a religious neighborhood of Jerusalem, vowing a tough line against anyone threatening army personnel.

"We will crack down on anyone who tries to terrorize civilians who are fulfilling their duty to the state," he said, following the incident on Tuesday night, which saw a soldier forced to hide in a building in Mea Shearim after a group of ultra-Orthodox hurled stones at him.

A military court on Wednesday postponed until next week a bail application by Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, who faces terror charges in Jordan following his deportation from Britain, his lawyer said.

"The state security court today postponed until next week its decision to look into my request to release Abu Qatada on bail," Taysir Diab told Agence France Presse.

Egypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohammed Badie and other top leaders of the movement for allegedly inciting violence that left dozens dead, judicial sources said.

At least 51 people were killed in clashes Monday outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi were calling for him to be reinstated.

Many devout Muslims in the Middle East have started observing the dawn-to-dusk fast for the month of Ramadan even as the region is rocked by Egypt's turmoil and the relentless civil war in Syria.

For most Sunnis and Shiites, Ramadan started on Wednesday while others are expected to begin observing the holy month on Thursday — differences based on various sightings of the new moon.

Egypt's National Salvation Front, the main coalition that backed the overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi, on Wednesday toned down its criticism of an interim charter to say it merely disagreed with some provisions.

On Tuesday night, the coalition had sent a statement saying: "The National Salvation Front announces its rejection of the constitutional decree."

Activist Alaa Morelli escaped the worst in Syrian prisons, but to secure her freedom she lied during a forced "confession" on state television, saying the uprising was the work of foreigners.

A student of Latakia university located on Syria's Mediterranean coastline, Morelli, 23, was arrested on June 12 last year, just after sitting one of her second-year exams.