Chief lawmakers in the Italian parliament meet later Monday to decide when Premier Romano Prodi's government will face a vote of confidence, after the Italian president this weekend rejected Prodi's resignation in the latest political crisis to hit the country.

The president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, has asked Romano Prodi to stay on as prime minister and face a vote of confidence in parliament. The decision came three days after Prodi announced that he was stepping down. Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned late Wednesday after his government lost a crucial parliamentary vote on foreign policy. The president will now begin talks with political leaders to discuss a way forward.

Last week's violence in Lebanon, after two months of opposition protests, were a sign of how hostile the atmosphere has become. A new group is calling for more reasoned dialogue between the opposition and the government, but analysts say the crisis will not really end until the problems that led to it are solved.

Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiev has invited outgoing Prime Minister Feliks Kulov to form a new cabinet, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported.

Warring Palestinian factions have given an optimistic assessment about a new round of coalition talks. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the negotiations come amid an increasingly violent power struggle over control of the Palestinian Authority.

On December 13-14, Turkey hosted a "Conference for the Support of the Iraqi People" in Istanbul that brought together more than 150 attendees, including politicians, religious figures, intellectuals and activists, from both inside and outside Iraq.

The head of the Arab League says he has won Syria's support for his efforts to mediate a solution to Lebanon's political crisis.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Arab diplomats are due to meet with Lebanese leaders in Beirut Monday to discuss an Arab League proposal to resolve the political crisis in the country.