Iran says it sees "no reason for negotiation" over its nuclear program if the European Union continues to insist that Tehran suspend its uranium-enrichment activities. Today's comment by government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham comes as Iran's top nuclear negotiator is scheduled to meet in Turkey with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Mortar shells killed more civilians in Mogadishu today, and sent hundreds more fleeing the Somali capital in the biggest mass exodus in the last 16 years. Battles since April 18 pitting Somali and Ethiopian troops against Islamist insurgents have killed at least 131 people.

Russia and U.S. are close to clash in the U.N. Security Council on the grounds of U.S.-backed plan that would grant independence to Serbia's breakaway province Kosovo. This diplomatic deadlock could unleash renewed violence.

The Bush administration confirmed Thursday it put off the imposition of new sanctions against Sudan at the urging of U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon. However U.S. officials are skeptical that diplomacy by the U.N. chief will lead to a breakthrough on peacekeeping in Darfur. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium-enrichment plant. A newly disclosed letter from an official at the UN's nuclear watchdog says Iran has assembled some 1,300 centrifuges -- the machines that spin uranium gas into enriched material -- and eight cascades of the centrifuges are now operating at the facility at Natanz.

A senior U.S. diplomat says the United States wants the international community to act quickly to help the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo achieve independence. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. State Department's third-highest-ranking official, told a U.S. House of Representatives committee today that Washington believes that supervised independence for Kosovo is now the only way forward.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the U.N. Security Council must be ready to impose new sanctions on Sudan if it rejects a U.N. plan to end the violence in Darfur. Speaking at a news conference in London Tuesday, Mr. Blair said the only thing that will make the Sudanese government understand its responsibilities is pressure.

Sudan has agreed to the first large deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and equipment in Darfur to bolster a beleaguered African Union force. But as VOA's Peter Heinlein reports from U.N. headquarters, western diplomats reacted cautiously to the announcement, and Khartoum's U.N. ambassador appeared to contradict it.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on Sunday spoke to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon via telephone to discuss the future status of Darfur and Kosovo. In the telephone conversation, Li stressed that the settlement of the Darfur issue in southern Sudan is at a key stage.

The UN Security Council has agreed to a Russian proposal to send a fact-finding mission to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo before deciding on its final status.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli presented to an April 10 session of the UN Security Council a new Georgian proposal for resolving the Abkhaz conflict, which is likely to prove even less palatable to the Abkhaz than previous proposals.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr who was listed for travel restrictions by a U.N. Security Council resolution has visited Russia without any difficulty, Iranian state television reported on its Web site Monday.