Members of the international peacemaking Quartet appeared to make little progress on Wednesday after separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to kick-start stalled peace talks.

Envoys and Quartet representative Tony Blair "stressed the important objective of a direct exchange between the parties without delay or preconditions," a statement from the diplomatic grouping read.

Israel on Wednesday reopened a controversial wooden access ramp to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, just over 48 hours after it was closed on safety grounds in a move which had sparked Muslim anger.

"It was opened this morning," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse. "It has been opened as normal for visitors, both Christian and Jewish."

Unknown attackers on Wednesday tried to set fire to a disused mosque in Jerusalem and scrawled anti-Arab slogans on the walls in an apparent "price tag" vengeance attack, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Slogans insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Arabs along with graffiti reading "price tag" were spray-painted on the exterior walls of the building in central Jerusalem.

The Mustaqbal bloc noted on Tuesday that the state’s restoration of its sovereignty can help restore stability in Lebanon.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The recent instability in the country can be attributed to the widespread possession of illegitimate arms.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday UNESCO's admission of Palestine was a key first recognition that he hoped others will follow, as the Palestinian flag was raised at the agency's offices.

"This admission is a first recognition of Palestine," Abbas said at the flag-raising ceremony in Paris.

Jewish settlers attacked an army base overnight on rumors troops were to destroy a settlement outpost, hours after another group broke into a military zone on the Jordan border, officials said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the military said a group of around 50 people had attacked the Ephraim base near Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.

Iran has indicted 15 people on charges of spying for the United States and Israel, Tehran's chief prosecutor said Tuesday, according to the Fars news agency.

"An indictment has been issued by the prosecutor's office against these 15 people," Jafari Dolatabi was quoted as saying.

Israeli security sources on Monday noted that the trajectory of the rocket fired overnight from the southern town of Majdal Selem into the nearby town of Houla “indicates that it was aimed at the (northern Israeli) town of Kiryat Shmona,” warning that “Hizbullah’s continuous playing with fire may lead to a security deterioration.”

Israel’s public radio quoted the sources as saying that the incident was part of a spate of attacks “in which the Hizbullah organization has a hand, including the firing of rockets into the western Galilee two weeks ago and the targeting of the members of the French UNIFIL unit in the Tyre region last weekend.”

Israel's closure of a wooden access ramp to the al-Aqsa mosque compound is tantamount to a declaration of war on Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, Hamas warned on Monday.

"This is a serious step that shows the Zionist scheme of aggression again the al-Aqsa mosque," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Agence France Presse.

Israel has approved construction of 40 homes and a farm in two new settler enclaves near the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, Haaretz daily reported on Monday.

"Israel's military establishment has approved the establishment of a new, permanent neighborhood and a farm near the West Bank settlement of Efrat," the paper said.