Twenty-four schoolgirls and two other people were killed when a bus overturned and crashed into a valley in the southwest of the country, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

Fourteen passengers survived the accident late on Friday on a road in Khuzestan province, Fars news agency said, adding that they were being treated in nearby hospitals.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Saturday pressed Damascus for a truce to break the cycle of bloodshed, as Lebanon's opposition blamed President Bashar Assad for a deadly Beirut bombing.

But even as Brahimi went into a meeting with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus, fighting raged on northern battlefields, where regime jets resumed bombarding the key town of Maaret al-Numan which rebels captured on October 9.

Libya's de facto head of state Mohammed Megaryef said on Saturday that not all areas of the country have been liberated, in remarks on the first anniversary of Moammar Gadhafi's death.

"The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed," Megaryef, the head of Libya's powerful national assembly, said on state television.

Syrian warplanes resumed bombarding the key northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan on Saturday, as clashes erupted on a nearby highway and an explosion rocked a town in Damascus province, a watchdog said.

The warplanes pounded Maaret al-Numan as they have daily since it was overrun by rebels on October 9, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israeli troops on Saturday boarded a boat carrying pro-Palestinian MPs and activists seeking to run its naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, blocking the latest attempt to reach the enclave by sea, the military said.

The operation, which the military said was concluded peacefully, ended the latest bid by activists to breach Israel's tight maritime embargo on Gaza which prohibits all naval traffic in and out of the Palestinian coastal territory.

The Saudi coastguard have arrested a group of Iranians who attempted to infiltrate the country by sea near the northeastern frontier with Kuwait, authorities said.

Seized were 14 Iranians who had been dropped off on shore by a boat and the driver of the boat, who was chased and captured by patrol boats as he headed out, Eastern Province coastguard spokesman Colonel Khaled al-Arqubi in a statement.

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday criticized Israel's plan to build hundreds of homes in annexed east Jerusalem and called for it to hold fresh talks with the Palestinians.

Catherine Ashton "deeply regrets" the Israeli interior ministry decision to back the expansion of the Gilo settlement by 797 units, said a statement from her office.

Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Saturday will press Syrian officials for a truce, just hours after Lebanese politicians blamed Damascus for the killing of a top security official.

But even as Brahimi arrived in the war-torn country Friday, government jets hammered the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in the northwest, and fighters there accused the regime of using cluster bombs in the attack, echoing claims by one rights group.

Ballot booths opened across the West Bank on Saturday as Palestinians began voting in local elections, in what is the first time they have gone to the polls since 2006.

Just over half a million eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots at 900 polling stations across the territory which are open for 12 hours from 7:00 am (0500 GMT), said the Central Elections Commission (CEC).

Libyan fighters linked to the army on Friday pounded the town of Bani Walid, a former bastion of toppled strongman Moammar Gadhafi, killing at least two people, local sources said.

"We have received two people dead and 16 wounded until now," said Abdullah al-Mansouri, deputy director of Bani Walid's hospital.