Egypt's military rulers agreed on Saturday to amend a controversial electoral law following threats of a poll boycott by dozens of political parties and a rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square for reforms.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, agreed to amend the new law to allow political parties to field candidates in the one-third of seats that had previously been reserved for independent candidates, the official MENA agency reported.

Four workers were killed and two employees injured in a gas pipe explosion on Saturday at Kuwait's largest refinery of Mina al-Ahmadi, Kuwait national refiner said.

The explosion took place at the Gas Liquefaction Plant at the refinery during maintenance works, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency.

Egypt's military chief of staff Sami Enan met party leaders on Saturday, a day after protesters converged on Cairo's central Tahrir Square to demand reforms.

The meeting came hours after scuffles and stone-throwing broke out in Tahrir Square as army troops attempted to remove protesters who wanted to stage a sit-in.

The Syrian National Council, which is trying to unite opponents to the regime of President Bashar Assad, was holding negotiations behind closed doors in Istanbul on Saturday.

Several opposition movements are trying to reach an alliance, a member of the SNC Halit Hoca told Agence France Presse.

Representatives of Syria's six-month-old protest movement joined opposition parties in Turkey on Saturday to forge a united front against Bashar Assad's regime after violence claimed at least 19 more lives.

Clashes between security forces and deserters killed 11 people in a village in Hama province on Friday, while another eight died during a crackdown on protests in flashpoint Homs, human rights activists said.

Voters turned out in low numbers for a second round of by-elections in Bahrain on Saturday boycotted by the Gulf state's Shiite opposition, witnesses said.

The elections were held to replace 18 MPs of the main Shiite opposition formation Al-Wefaq, who resigned in February shortly after Shiite-led protests sparked a deadly response from authorities in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The United States said Friday it summoned the Syrian ambassador to Washington to read him "the riot act" after President Bashar al-Assad's supporters tried to attack the U.S. envoy in Damascus.

European nations on Friday dropped the word "sanctions" from a proposed U.N. Council resolution on Syria as they played a diplomatic word game to temper Russian opposition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand a quick return to peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, her spokesman said Friday.

Twenty-seven people have been killed on Friday at the hands of Syrian security forces during anti-regime demonstrations that took place in various Syrian cities, according to activists.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission said that 27 people were killed and tens were wounded in the crackdown against protestors.