President Bush says pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq before the government there can take over its own security would embolden neighboring Iran. Iran's foreign minister says his country would step in to ensure regional stability, once foreign forces leave Iraq.

Hamas officials said an explosion went off early Thursday near a group of Hamas policemen patrolling in Gaza City, wounding three, including one critically.

Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, has used a rare interview with the foreign media to attack American plans for a Middle East conference to be held later this year.

A premature pullout of the U.S.-led multinational security force could send Iraq and region spiraling into chaos, the countries foreign minister said, adding that a U.S. Senate proposal to divide the country into three regions was a bad idea.

Israeli troops killed two members of the Islamist group Hamas in a night clash in the north of the Gaza Strip, local radio said Monday. The two fighters killed belonged to Hamas' military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders will hold another summit meeting on Wednesday in a bid to advance the peace process. But despite some signs of progress, serious differences remain.

The division of the Palestinian territories caused by the Hamas-Fatah conflict must not hold back the peace process in the Middle East as a whole, Egypt's foreign minister said.

President Bush Monday, starting three days of diplomacy at the United Nations, met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and reaffirmed U.S. support for Palestinian statehood. Mr. Bush also met Middle East "Quartet" envoy Tony Blair in an effort to build momentum for a U.S.-organized Middle East peace conference in November.

U.S. President George Bush meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York Monday, to discuss plans for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference.

The Middle East peace mediators known as the Quartet have backed ongoing talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to the West Bank town of Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The talks focused on a document on Palestinian statehood to be presented at an international peace conference in the United States, possibly in November.

Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, has arrived in Israel for the first stop on her tour of the Middle East just before the peace conference organized by the White House for November.