Hundreds of federalism backers who massed in east Libya on Tuesday insisted on the region's autonomy and challenged the framework for electing a constituent assembly.

Participants issued a statement stressing their "commitment to the autonomy of Cyrenaica stretching from the border with Egypt (in the east) to Sirte," the hometown of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Anti-U.S. Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for the release of jailed Bahraini activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike for more than two months.

"I demand his immediate release," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in Najaf and obtained by Agence France Presse on Wednesday. It was unclear when the cleric made the statement.

France said Wednesday that 14 foreign ministers would attend a meeting on Syria in Paris on Thursday to send a "strong" message to Bashar al-Assad's regime to implement a peace plan.

"The obstacles to the U.N. observers' mission that Damascus is putting in place and the Syrian regime's continued repression, contrary to its commitments, calls for a strong reaction from the international community," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.

Turkey has intercepted a Bermuda-flagged vessel suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria in the Mediterranean, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"We received information that the vessel has a cargo of arms and ammunition headed for Syria," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Turkish authorities would search the vessel later in the day.

Nine French activists who arrived in Israel overnight and "caused trouble" at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, have been expelled, an interior ministry official said on Wednesday.

"These nine pro-Palestinian activists caused trouble and some violence on board the plane they were travelling on from Athens and at the terminal," spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told Agence France Presse.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday in a surprise visit, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

The fate of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, is expected to top the agenda after Libyan officials repeatedly expressed their desire to try him locally.

Some 100 Tunisian workers kidnapped by armed men in western Libya have been released, Tunisia said Wednesday after a diplomatic row in which Tripoli denied any abductions had occurred.

"The Tunisians kidnapped in Libya have been freed," Tunisia's interior ministry said in a statement.

Iran -- a country slammed by international rights groups for its state executions -- on Wednesday welcomed Saudi Arabia suspending death sentences against several of its nationals convicted for drug trafficking.

Iran's protests over the matter led to intervention from Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, media reported, quoting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Russia on Wednesday accused the armed opposition in Syria of trying to provoke violence that could involve foreign powers and said it saw nothing standing in the way of dialogue.

"There are plenty of those who would like to see (Kofi) Annan's plan fail in hopes of then demanding other options -- primarily meaning the use of (outside) force," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

Thousands have backed a video appeal to Syria's first lady to speak out against violence, made by the wives of the British and German ambassadors to the United Nations.

In the video, Sheila Lyall Grant and Huberta von Voss-Wittig implore Asma al-Assad "to stand up for peace" and speak out against the deadly crackdown instigated by her husband President Bashar al-Assad.