The southern Syrian town of Daraa, the center of pro-democracy protests, was hit by a general strike on Tuesday and braced for fresh rallies after midday prayers, a rights activist said.

"The general strike was largely observed," he told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity, adding that activists had distributed leaflets urging shops to remain closed on Tuesday.

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in northern Gaza on Tuesday, medical sources said, as Palestinian factions met to discuss tensions with Israel along the border.

"A Palestinian was killed by an Israeli tank shell near Erez," Adham Abu Selmiya told AFP, identifying him as 21-year-old Mohammed Ziyad Shalha.

Syria was on Tuesday braced for the start of "Martyrs Week", a series of rallies organized by a Facebook group in honor of those killed in security clampdowns on pro-reform demonstrations.

"The Week of the Martyrs will be a thorn in the regime's side," the organizers of Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011 said, designating Tuesday as the first day of protests focused on coastal towns "far from the capital".

Security forces shot dead two protesters in the western city of Hudaydah during demonstrations that broke out overnight after bloody protests elsewhere in Yemen left 17 dead, witnesses said Tuesday.

Thousands of protesters took to the street in the Red Sea city denouncing the killing of 17 anti-regime protesters Monday in the city of Taez, 200 kilometers south of the capital Sanaa.

The Libyan government said Tuesday it was ready to negotiate reforms, but refused any talk of Moammar Gadhafi stepping down saying he was a unifying figure after ruling the nation for four decades.

"What kind of political system is implemented in the country? This is negotiable, we can talk about it," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told journalists. "We can have anything, elections, and referendums."

The commission charged with replacing Syria's emergency law with new legislation will conclude its work by Friday, a newspaper close to the government reported.

"Sources within the commission tasked with studying the removal of the emergency law said it will, by Friday, finish formulating the necessary legislation to replace the emergency law," the Al-Watan newspaper said Monday.

Eight prisoners died and 17 were injured in a jail blaze Monday in the flashpoint Syrian town of Latakia started when an inmate torched his mattress, police cited by the state SANA news agency said.

"Twenty-five prisoners were hospitalized, eight of whom died of asphyxiation and serious burn injuries," said Latakia police chief General Kamal Fteih.

A new governor has been sworn in for a Syrian province that has become the epicenter for the country's anti-government protests.

The state-run news agency SANA says Mohammed Khaled Hannous was sworn in as governor of Daraa on Monday.

Yemeni security forces shot dead 15 anti-regime demonstrators and wounded scores more on Monday, on the second day of lethal clashes in Taez, south of the capital, medics said.

"The death toll has gone up to 15," said Sadeq al-Shujaa, head of a makeshift field hospital at a square in central Taez, updating an earlier casualty toll.

A blinding dust storm hit Kuwait on Monday forcing a halt in oil exports which an official said would not affect commitments to clients, while air traffic was completely halted.

A spokesman for Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) said oil exports were stopped and would resume when weather conditions improve.