Attacks in more than a dozen cities across Iraq killed 67 people on Monday, including 40 in twin blasts blamed on al-Qaida in the southern city of Kut, in the country's bloodiest day in more than a year.

The surge of violence raises questions over the capabilities of Iraq's forces after its leaders agreed to open talks with the United States over a military training mission to last beyond a projected year-end American withdrawal.

Turkey did not give the Syrian regime a grace period to carry on with its military operations, which must be stopped “immediately,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stressed Monday.

“Military operations in Syria have not stopped since Thursday evening,” Davutoglu said, describing the military assaults as “a blatant violation of human rights.”

A senior Palestinian official on Monday strongly condemned Syria over violence that forced thousands of Palestinian refugees to flee a camp in the port city of Latakia.

"We strongly condemn the operations of the Syrian forces in raiding and shelling the Palestinian Ramel Camp in Latakia and the displacement of the population," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Jordan urged Syria on Monday to "immediately" stop violence and start implementing reforms, as more than 2,000 people have been reported killed in a government crackdown on the pro-democracy revolt.

"Prime Minister Maarouf Bakhit today telephoned his Syrian counterpart Adel Safar and told him that violence must stop immediately," the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran in talks with top Republican U.S. lawmakers on Monday of seeking to torpedo efforts to bring about democracy in the Middle East, his office said.

"Iran is the greatest danger that we face today," a statement quoted him as telling a 27-member delegation, headed by Representative Kevin McCarthy, the number-three Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Jordan's powerful Islamist opposition said on Monday that the constitutional reform proposals unveiled by King Abdullah II were "important" but not enough.

"After examining the recommendations and the current situation of the country, we would like to stress that they are important, but do not meet the demands of people," the Islamic Action Front (IAF) said on its website.

Tunisian police fired teargas on Monday at a rally by hundreds of people protesting at the lack of political reforms since the overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January.

Columns of smoke could be seen rising above an area in front of the cathedral in Tunis where protesters gathered for a demonstration at the same time as an authorized one called by the General Workers' Union (UGTT), according to an Agence France Presse correspondent at the scene.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's envoy on Libya flew into Tunis Monday, saying he would be joining talks between rebels and the government of embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib said negotiations on Libya's future would be taking place in a hotel in the Tunis suburbs.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has given the green light to build 277 new homes in the Ariel settlement of the occupied West Bank, his office said on Monday.

"Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week approved the marketing of 277 housing units in the Neuman district in Ariel," it said, referring to a sprawling settlement deep inside the northern West Bank.

Libyan rebels said on Monday they had wrested control from Moammar Gadhafi's forces of "most" of the key port of Zawiyah, the last barrier on their thrust towards the capital Tripoli.

"Basically most of the town is under the control of rebel fighters," the insurgents' field commander Abdul Hamid Ismail told AFP, referring to the port 40 kilometers west of Tripoli.