Hundreds of baton-wielding riot police barred Sudanese opposition activists from demonstrating on Wednesday, arresting dozens and beating up others, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Some 500 riot police were deployed in Abu Janzeer square, in the center of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, after an alliance of opposition parties announced plans to hold a demonstration there at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT).

A Tunisian court ordered the former ruling RCD party to be dissolved Wednesday, consigning a key pillar of toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year regime to the scrapheap.

The Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD) had already been suspended from official duties in February after Ben Ali fled on January 14 at the height of a popular uprising to overthrow his autocratic regime.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that a decision to support imposing a no-fly zone over Libya was up to the Arab League, not only Gulf countries.

"It is an issue that is the responsibility of the Arab League," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a press conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

A bomb struck a vehicle in Algeria and killed five people, media reported Wednesday, in the deadliest attack in months as the country battles violence blamed on Islamist militants.

Three of the people killed in Tuesday's blast were from the same family, local media reported.

Saudi Arabia came under renewed pressure Wednesday to ease its ban on demonstrations, as Facebook activists called for a "Day of Rage" and a "Saudi revolution" later this week.

With the tightly controlled kingdom's security forces poised to crack down on any unauthorized demonstrations, U.S.-based lobby group Human Rights Watch added its voice to demands for a relaxation of the protest ban.

Ten people were killed and 110 wounded in religious clashes Tuesday in Cairo, the health ministry said, as Egypt's mew military rulers struggle to steer the post-revolution country through a transition.

"The total number of injured received by hospitals after the violence (Tuesday) in the areas of Moqattam, the Citadel and Sayeda Aisha is 110, while 10 people were killed," said Sherif Zamel, head of emergency services at the health ministry, without specifying if they were Christian or Muslim.

A group of Emirati intellectuals and activists on Wednesday petitioned the president of the Gulf state to introduce direct elections and vest the parliament with legislative powers.

The petition, posted online, cites "rapid regional and international developments that necessitate improving national participation," in calling for the direct election of all members of the Federal National Council (FNC), which serves only as an advisory body.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi warned on Wednesday that the region would be engulfed in chaos, spreading to Israel's doorstep, if al-Qaida takes control of his country.

"If al-Qaida manages to seize Libya, then the entire region, up to Israel, will be at the prey of chaos,” he said in an interview with Turkey's public TRT television channel.

Any military intervention in Libya should be the "last resort" and with the approval of the United Nations, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Tuesday.

"Before any possible intervention in Libya, we must note the principles to follow, firstly the (approval of the U.N.) Security Council," he said.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir met with Egypt's new military rulers on Tuesday, the official MENA agency reported, marking the first visit to post-Mubarak Egypt by an Arab head of state.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the country's ruling military council.