The United States and France are united in their resolve to finish the job in Libya, U.S. President Barack Obama said after talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit Friday.

Obama and the French leader said they have a convergence of views of a series of key issues during their talks, which lasted around 45 minutes, just before the wider summit considered the implications of the Arab Spring.

Spain's government said Thursday it had received a message from Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi seeking a ceasefire.

Spain said it was standing with other European governments, however, in seeking a set of conditions for such an agreement.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that fiscal pressures on the U.S. military's budget will require sacrificing some missions abroad and scaling back pay and benefits.

Gates, who is due to step down at the end of June, urged military and civilian leaders to face up to harsh realities about the future size and role of the armed forces amid a push to contain the country's huge deficit.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the possible Palestinian drive for national recognition at the United Nations was a "mistake", in his most direct criticism yet of the campaign.

Obama also urged Israel and the Palestinians to make "wrenching compromise" for a peace deal after a week of acrimony left prospects of a final settlement more distant than ever.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday slammed a speech by Israel's prime minister and said the Palestinians would seek U.N. recognition if peace talks don't resume.

"Our first choice is negotiations, but if there is no progress before September we will go to the United Nations," Abbas said, criticizing a speech by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama is a "pawn" who cannot save Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"You are a pawn who has been given a mission to save American and the Zionist regime but of course you won't be able to do it," Ahmadinejad said, addressing the U.S. president.

The European Union's transport chief said Tuesday he did not expect the Icelandic volcano ash cloud to provoke a widespread closure of European airspace like a similar event last year.

Although airlines cancelled more than 250 flights as the cloud blew over Britain, Siim Kallas noted that this time the volcano, weather and European response are different than in April 2010, when an eruption caused chaos.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday vowed that the Jewish state would never withdraw to the "indefensible" 1967 border, revisiting a spat over the issue with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Netanyahu told the powerful pro-Israel lobby said he would spell out his vision for peace with the Palestinians in a speech to Congress on Tuesday, but promised that would not include a withdrawal to lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in windswept Dublin on Monday for a highly personal stop in Ireland at the start of a four-nation European tour.

Obama's visit will also take him on a state visit to Britain, the G8 summit in France and Poland.

Taliban gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed a major naval air base in the heart of Pakistan's biggest city, destroying two U.S.-made surveillance aircraft and killing 13 personnel.

It was the worst assault on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, piling further embarrassment on the armed forces three weeks after U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden under their noses.