A high-level U.N. nuclear agency delegation will visit Iran in late January to try to clear up allegations of a covert weapons program and soothe tensions between Tehran and the West, diplomats said Friday.

The visit for talks led by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief inspector Herman Nackaerts would last from the 28th through the first week of February, a Western diplomat told Agence France Presse.

Turkish police launched a nationwide swoop on alleged sympathizers of Kurdish separatist rebels and arrested more than 20 people, broadcaster NTV and other media outlets said.

The operation included a raid on the Ankara office of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish lawmaker known for her pro-independence views, the television channel said.

The U.S. embassy in Bangkok warned Friday of a possible terrorist threat against tourists in the Thai capital, urging its citizens to exercise caution in areas popular with foreigners.

"Foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future," it said in an emergency message posted on its website.

Japan is "extremely circumspect" about the U.S.-led drive to impose sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the country's foreign minister said Friday, apparently contradicting an earlier pledge to join Washington's campaign.

"The United States would like to impose sanctions. We believe it is necessary to be extremely circumspect about this matter," Koichiro Gemba told a press conference.

Two of Washington's top irritants, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro, discussed world events for two hours, and the Iranian leader on Thursday described the retired Cuban revolutionary as healthy and engaged, and declared their two countries to be allies "fighting on the same front."

"It made me enormously happy to see the comandante healthy and fit," Ahmadinejad said through a translator at an impromptu airport appearance alongside Fidel's brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, before flying off to Ecuador for the final stop in his four-nation Latin America visit.

New sanctions against Iran will be perceived by the world community as an attempt at changing the regime in the Islamic republic, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gannady Gatilov said on Friday.

"Additional sanctions against Iran, as well as potentially any military strikes against it, will unquestionably be perceived by the international community as an attempt at changing the regime in Iran," Gatilov was quoted as saying by Interfax.

The United States plans to withdraw about 7,000 U.S. troops of the 81,000 troops based in Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday.

In an interview with the Armed Forces Press Service, Panetta said two brigade combat teams, or roughly 7,000 U.S. troops, would be withdrawn from Europe, but rotational units would still maintain strong military presence in the region.

North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula this week, a report said Friday.

The hermit state lobbed the missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) on Wednesday, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted anonymous Japanese government sources as saying.

Ali Larijani, the influential speaker of Iran's parliament, said Thursday during a visit to Turkey that his country was ready for "serious" talks with world powers on its controversial nuclear program.

In comments reported by the official IRNA news agency, Larijani said: "The negotiations can yield results if they are serious and not a game."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday strongly condemned a video appearing to show U.S. soldiers "desecrating" the corpses of slain insurgents by urinating on them.

"The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans," said a statement from the president's office.