International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called on the Libyan authorities on Tuesday to rein in allied militia it said were responsible for detaining journalists.

The Paris-based group said it was "extremely concerned" about the deteriorating security situation in Libya and the behavior of certain militias towards media personnel.

The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that it was seeking a haven for 5,000 vulnerable Syrians in countries outside the Middle East, calling on countries to match the number that Germany has pledged to take in.

"UNHCR is calling on other states to complement the German offer with a further 5,000 places for humanitarian admissions, enabling a total of up to 10,000 highly vulnerable Syrians to find safety elsewhere," the agency said in a statement.

Italian diplomats in Tripoli escaped from their booby-trapped car before it exploded during a shopping trip in the Libyan capital on Tuesday, officials said.

"The Italian diplomats got out of their car in the district of Zawiet al-Dahmani to shop when they noticed a wire hanging beneath the vehicle," a diplomat said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has foiled five suicide bombings and many other "terrorist" attacks since the start of the year.

Shin Bet, the domestic security service, and the army had prevented the bombings and 30 attempted kidnappings of soldiers, Netanyahu told visiting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani backed Hassan Rowhani for Friday's presidential election, saying the former nuclear negotiator who champions better international ties is "more suitable" for the post.

"I will vote for Dr Rowhani, who entered the race after consulting me," Rafsanjani said in remarks reported by the ILNA news agency on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has warned that "all options are open" in confronting an Ethiopian project to build a dam on the Blue Nile, which may diminish Egypt's water supply.

"I confirm that all options are open to deal with this subject," the Islamist president told hundreds of his supporters late Monday at a conference on the issue.

British far-right leader Nick Griffin was among a group of European politicians visiting Syria on Tuesday at the invitation of President Bashar Assad's regime.

British National Party (BNP) spokesman Simon Darby said Griffin and other European delegates had been invited by the Syrian foreign ministry.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a day after Israel's closest South American ally signed a free trade deal with the Jewish state.

Colombia was one of a minority of states to abstain in a vote on upgrading the Palestinians' status at the United Nations in November which passed with overwhelming international support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he had always believed that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad should have implemented political reforms that could have averted the current bloodbath.

But Putin also stressed that he remained firmly opposed to outside intervention and implied that Russia's position on the crisis remained unchanged.

The Syrian conflict is at a "turning point" with regime forces gaining ground, the French foreign ministry said Tuesday, adding that it was time to review whether to arm the opposition.

President Bashar Assad's regime has pledged to focus its attention on the northern city of Aleppo after winning a strategic victory by retaking Qusayr, a strategically important town on the border with Lebanon.