Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, is due in Jordan on Sunday on his first official visit since he was expelled in 1999, the government spokesman said.

"Khaled Meshaal will visit Jordan on Sunday, along with the Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani," Rakan Majali, who is also information minister, told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

A member of Russia's Parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said Monday that Moscow ran out of methods to stop the international push for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria "was the last instrument allowing Bashar Assad to maintain the status quo in the international arena,” Margelov was quoted as saying by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

A senior U.S. diplomat visiting Russia will press Moscow on a reported deal to sell Syria fighter jets, something Washington described as "quite concerning," the State Department said.

Jeffrey Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, was in Moscow on Monday and Syria was "issue number one on his agenda," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Israel carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Monday, sources from both sides said, in what Israel said was a response to recent rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Israeli planes targeted an arms factory in the center of the Palestinian territory as well as three tunnels used for smuggling contraband, two in the north and one in the south, the army said in a statement.

A series of car bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 60, an interior ministry official said.

Two of the bombs exploded within half an hour of each other in the capital's Sadr City Shiite bastion, killing six people and wounding 32, the official said.

Germany on Monday led European demands for strong U.N. Security Council support for Arab League calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power.

Germany's U.N. ambassador Peter Wittig said the Arab League plan for Syria agreed at the weekend could be a "game changer" for the Security Council which has been deadlocked with Russia and China vetoing one resolution condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown.

Islamist MPs took center stage on Monday as Egypt's parliament met for the first time since a popular uprising ousted Hosni Mubarak, electing one of their own as speaker of the assembly.

In their first act, the deputies in the Islamist-dominated lower house voted overwhelmingly for Saad al-Katatni, a leading member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

The Arab League's latest roadmap for an end to the crisis in Syria signals that regional states see the Assad era drawing to a close, although it could yet be a slow process, analysts said Monday.

"I think the Arab League yesterday unexpectedly pulled the rabbit out of the hat," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.

Diehard supporters of slain Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi seized control Monday of Bani Walid in a brazen attack on his one-time bastion that killed five people, officials told Agence France Presse.

The assault on a base of former rebels who helped oust Gadhafi was the first major offensive launched by his loyalists since the "liberation" of Libya on October 23, shortly after the fall of Bani Walid.

Syria's opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Monday voiced willingness to "study" an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy and clear the way for a national unity government.

"We see in this initiative elements that reflect seriousness and deserve careful study in the context of achieving our people's demands for justice, freedom, and life with dignity," it said.