Syrian forces mounting raids on dissidents killed at least nine civilians on Tuesday, rights groups said, as Damascus accused the West of trying to break up the country with "total chaos."

And as China expressed its concern at the wider implications of the turbulence, the United States warned of signs that President Bashar al-Assad's opponents were turning to violence.

Egypt will hold on November 28 its first parliamentary election since an uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, the ruling military announced in a decree in Tuesday.

The country's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, decided that the election would be held "over three rounds staring on November 28," the official MENA news agency reported.

Israeli's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that its district planning committee had approved a plan for 1,100 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Gilo.

"The Israeli interior ministry announced on Tuesday that the plan for 1,100 new housing units in Gilo had passed its district planning committee, and will now be available for public objections for 60 days," a ministry statement said.

Libya's new rulers have decided to postpone formation of a transitional government until the entire country is liberated from forces loyal to ex-leader Moammar Gadhafi, an official said on Tuesday.

"Consultations have led to a decision to postpone the formation of a government until after liberation," Mustafa al-Huni, a member of the ruling National Transitional Council, said in the NTC's eastern bastion of Benghazi.

Fugitive Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi has told his supporters that he is still fighting on the ground and is ready to die a martyr, a loyalist website reported on Tuesday.

"Heroes have resisted and fallen as martyrs and we too are awaiting martyrdom," the website of the defunct Allibiya state television channel quoted Gadhafi as saying in a speech broadcast on local radio in Bani Walid, one of his last remaining bastions.

A walkabout in central Cairo by Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi donning civilian clothes has unleashed a torrent of questions about his political intentions.

Tantawi took a stroll in Cairo's Downtown area on Monday night wearing a business suit and with no personal security in tow.

Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammad Nasser Ahmad Ali escaped an assassination bid by a suicide bomber Tuesday in the southern port city of Aden but 10 of his party were wounded, a security official said.

"A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives drove into the minister's motorcade as he was driving out of a tunnel," the official told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The foreign ministers of Bahrain and Iran met in New York late Monday for their first talks since the two countries withdrew their ambassadors in a row over the crushing of Shiite-led protests in Manama, Iran said on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told his Bahraini counterpart that the Sunni minority government should open a dialogue with the Gulf kingdom's Shiite majority, his ministry quoted him as saying.

A group of 38 women and seven girls arrested last week during a protest against Bahrain's parliamentary by-elections have reportedly been tortured or ill-treated, Amnesty International said.

"They were apprehended without lawyers present and some of them reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated," the London-based advocacy group said in a statement late on Monday.

Iraq has signed an agreement with the United States to buy 18 F-16s and has already made an initial payment as part of the deal, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday.

"Iraq has signed with Washington to buy the F-16s," Ali Mussawi said.