Incentives to kickstart spending by Asian governments after the global downturn will help the region post retail sales almost double those of North America within four years, a report said on Monday.

The region will also post sales three times more than Western Europe, said the study by account PricewaterhouseCoopers, as it bounces back from the global downturn, which hammered demand for exports, a key economic growth driver.

Sweden on Sunday probed two bomb blasts that killed a person in central Stockholm as a "terrorist crime", as an Al-Qaeda-linked website claimed one of its militants had carried out the suicide attack.

Saturday's explosions -- a suspected suicide attack and separate blast -- targeted Christmas shoppers in a busy pedestrian quarter of the Swedish capital. Two people were also injured.

The showdown over Iran's nuclear pursuit is "still in the stage of diplomacy," and extended sanctions against the regime could help prevent it from acquiring atomic weapons, Israel's defense minister said in comments broadcast Sunday.

"I think that it's still in the stage of diplomacy," Ehud Barak told CNN in an interview.

Sunni leaders from opposite ends of Lebanon's political spectrum on Sunday urged supporters to stand firm against the Shiite group Hizbullah, at a time of high tension between the two Muslim communities.

An MP loyal to Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a radical Salafist leader jointly accused the army of serving as cover for Hizbullah, urging a gathering of 1,500 to reject an alleged military crackdown on their community.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday invited Jordan's King Abdullah II to visit Tehran, in a letter delivered by top aid Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a palace statement said.

"His majesty met Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, who delivered a letter from President Ahmadinejad about bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues," it said.

Winds, rain and hail battered the eastern Mediterranean for a second day on Sunday, wreaking havoc across the region as a months-long drought came to a sudden, drastic end.

Drought-stricken countries across the Middle East had been praying for rain for weeks when weather conditions turned violent at the weekend, with at least four people killed and another feared dead as gale-force winds and torrential rain pounded the coastline.

Palestinian officials expressed doubt and frustration on Sunday about the future of peace talks after the United States failed to secure a new settlement freeze.

n a speech on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged that Washington would remain engaged despite the failure, encouraging the two sides to address core issues through indirect talks

Six foreign soldiers were killed Sunday following an attack by insurgents in Afghanistan's Taliban-hit south, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

The coalition force would not give further details of the incident, one of the deadliest single attacks in recent months, and would not reveal the soldiers' nationalities, in line with its policy.

Twin blasts in central Stockholm killed one person and injured two others, in what Sweden's foreign minister said was a "terrorist" attack that could have had "catastrophic" consequences.

The explosions on Saturday, in a busy part of the capital packed with Christmas shoppers, came minutes after a Swedish news agency received a message denouncing Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and threatening deadly attacks.

Suicide attacks targeting a police checkpoint and a Shiite Muslim procession in western and central Iraq on Sunday killed 10 people, including six policemen, police and a doctor said.

The violence comes two weeks ahead of a deadline for Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki to form a cabinet in a bid to end months of government impasse, and days before the climax of the Shiite commemoration ceremony of Ashura on Friday.