Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday urged speedy reforms, comprehensive dialogue and more efforts to battle corruption amid popular discontent and pro-reform protests.

"When I talk about reform, it means that I want real and fast reforms," the king told government officials, MPs, senators and members of the judiciary, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Thousands staged rallies in Moroccan cities on Sunday demanding political reform and limits on the powers of King Mohammed VI, the latest protests demanding change that have rocked the region.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 people took to the streets of the capital Rabat, shouting: "The people want change, denouncing corruption and calling for a democratic constitution to be adopted.

Hundreds of students demonstrated on Sunday on the eighth straight day of anti-regime protests in Sanaa, while police shot dead a protester in south Yemen and the opposition vowed to join protests.

In the capital, students gathered outside the university's campus chanting slogans demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of Iran's ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was freed on Sunday after being arrested briefly in Tehran as police deployed to prevent protests, Fars news agency reported.

"Faezeh Hashemi, who was arrested as she led a number of anti-revolutionaries and rioters while claiming to purchase clothes in Vali Asr Street, has been released," the report said.

Around 3,000 Palestinians gathered in the West Bank on Sunday to protest against the U.S. veto that nixed a Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements.

The crowd massed in Ramallah's Manara Square, a central roundabout in the West Bank city, waving banners and shouting slogans against the American administration.

Several Iranian opposition websites said that anti-government demonstrations had started in some cities, including Tehran on Sunday, as police said security forces were deployed in the Iranian capital.

"Police fired tear gas as a cat-and-mouse game (between police and demonstrators) began in Vali Asr Square" of Tehran, the Rahesabz.net said citing witnesses.

Israel's prime minister on Sunday accused Iran of trying to exploit the recent instability in Egypt by sending two warships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, saying he views the move "with gravity."

The Iranian ships were expected to make a rare crossing through the canal on Sunday or Monday en route to Syria — an Iranian ally and Israel's enemy to the north. Egypt confirmed the ships would be allowed through the strategic passage.

Saudi Arabia urged the Bahraini opposition to heed government calls for dialogue, pledging on Sunday to stand by its small neighbor after protesters re-occupied Manama's central Pearl Square.

"Saudi Arabia is carefully following the developments... and calls upon brothers in Bahrain to be reasonable in proposing their ideas, and accept what was offered by the government," state news agency SPA said quoting an unnamed official.

An Algerian opposition deputy was badly hurt in clashes with riot police as protesters tried to rally in a central Algiers square Saturday and was thought to be in a coma, his party said.

Tahar Besbes, of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, was hit in the stomach by a policeman and hit his head on the pavement when he fell, party spokesman Mohsen Belabbas said.

One protester was shot dead and five wounded in clashes with Yemeni government supporters near the capital Sanaa's university campus on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported.

The death, the first in Sanaa in a week of similar clashes, came as government supporters, armed with guns, batons and rocks, tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones.