Any international military intervention in Libya would have "absolutely negative" effects, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday during a visit to neighbor Egypt.

"France, as well as many of its partners, is not in favor of any Western military intervention in Libya, which would have absolutely negative effects," Juppe told a news conference in Cairo.

Egypt's new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf vowed on Friday to respond to demands for democratic change as he addressed thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square a day after his appointment.

"I am here because I draw my legitimacy from you ... I will exert all my effort to respond to your demands," Sharaf told flag-waving supporters in the square, the center of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last month.

Egypt's new military rulers told visiting Turkish President Abdullah Gul Thursday they were committed to overseeing a democratic transition after the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak.

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces reiterated its will to manage a democratic transition," Gul told reporters.

Egypt's military rulers have accepted the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, seen by protesters as a symbol of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime, the army said Thursday.

He will be replaced by Essam Sharaf, a former minister who took part in the mass demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to strongman Mubarak's resignation on February 11 after three decades in power.

Egypt on Monday slapped a ban on ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family traveling abroad, and also imposed a freeze on their assets, judicial officials said.

Besides Mubarak, who resigned on February 11 following weeks of protests, the decision also applied for his wife Suzanne, his two sons Ala and Gamal, and their wives, according to the same source.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that weapons manufactured and delivered to "dictators" by the United States were killing protesters in uprisings around the Arab world.

The hardliner said that the United States and its allies must be blamed for imposing dictatorships on regional countries now in the grip of deadly revolts.

Israel's defense minister said Monday his country must look beyond the risks that might arise from the changes sweeping the Mideast and seek opportunities to move peacemaking forward — including possible peace talks with Syria.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that Syria appears to be signaling it might be willing to reach an accord.

The United States said Sunday it was prepared to offer "any kind of assistance" to Libyans seeking to overthrow the regime of strongman Moammer Gadhafi as they set up a transitional body.

As forces opposed to the longest-serving Arab leader took control of several western Libyan towns, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed the calls of world leaders, including President Barack Obama, for him to quit.

The deputy to Osama bin Laden issued al-Qaida's second message since the Egyptian uprising, accusing the nation's Christian leadership of inciting interfaith tensions and denying that the terror network was behind last month's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria that killed 21 and sparked protests.

The message Friday from Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of the terror network, comes amid renewed Muslim-Christian tension over the slaying of a Coptic priest and a dispute involving a monastery.

Two Iranian warships, the first to enter the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal since 1979, docked at the Syrian port of Latakia on Thursday, an Iranian diplomatic source told Agence France Presse in Damascus.

Israel has put its navy on high alert, denounced the ships' arrival in the region as an Iranian power play and branded their voyage "a provocation."