NTC fighters claimed to have captured a key objective Thursday in their drive on Sirte, the hometown of fugitive Moammar Gadhafi, as the ex-Libyan leader dismissed as lies reports he had fled to Niger.

At the same time, talks on a peaceful surrender of the town of Bani Walid, held by Gadhafi loyalists, have ended without success, a National Transitional Council military chief said, raising the prospects of an assault on it.

Vandals graphitized a West Bank mosque, torched two Palestinian cars and uprooted olive trees overnight in attacks which locals on Thursday blamed on Jewish settlers.

The mosque in Yatma village some 10 kilometers south of Nablus was spray-painted with Hebrew graffiti reading "price tag" and "Migron" in reference to a settlement outpost where Israeli troops demolished three homes on Monday.

The foreign ministers of Jordan and Morocco are to hold talks with their six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council counterparts on possible accession to the Gulf bloc, the GCC chief said on Thursday.

Abdul Latif al-Zayani said in a statement the foreign ministers of Jordan and Morocco have been invited to discuss the "strengthening of relations and cooperation" on the sidelines of a GCC meeting on Sunday in Saudi Arabia.

Palestinians on Thursday kicked off a campaign of support for their bid to become the 194th state to join the United Nations, calling on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to back them.

The launch of the campaign, dubbed "National Campaign for Palestine: state 194", is part of the build-up to September 20, when Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is expected to submit the formal membership request.

A delegation from Yemen's ruling party headed Thursday to Riyadh to seek permission from convalescing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for his deputy to negotiate a power-transfer plan with the opposition, a party official said.

"The delegation is heading to Riyadh to meet the president and ask him to authorize his deputy to start the dialogue" with the opposition, which is demanding Saleh's ouster, the official told Agence France Presse requesting anonymity.

Syria, accused by France of "crimes against humanity," on Thursday sent its security forces storming into a northwestern village where they killed three military defectors, rights activists said.

"A force comprising seven armored vehicles and 10 jeeps stormed the village of Ibleen in Jabal Al-Zawiyah (region) in search of people wanted by the security services," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

The wealthy Gulf state of Kuwait appeared headed Thursday for a major political crisis over allegations of corruption involving several members of parliament and former ministers.

Media reported that a number of banks planned to refer as many as 15 MPs and possibly former ministers to the public prosecution to investigate "suspicious" huge cash deposits into their accounts.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak played down the diplomatic crisis with Ankara on Thursday, saying the current dispute over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish-led flotilla "will pass."

But he reiterated his government's line that Israel not apologize for the May 2010 operation which targeted a flotilla of ships trying to break Israel's naval blockade on Gaza, and cost the lives of nine Turkish nationals.

A special Bahraini court has released on bail 20 Shiite medics being tried for their role in a month-long pro-democracy protest, including many who had gone on hunger strike, state news agency BNA said.

The national safety court, set up under a three-month quasi-emergency law declared by king Hamad ahead of the mid-March crackdown on the protest led by the Shiite majority, said the verdict will be issued on September 29, BNA reported late Wednesday.

Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday slammed reports he had fled to neighboring Niger as "psychological warfare and lies" in an audio message aired by the Damascus-based Arrai television channel.

"They have nothing else to resort to apart from psychological warfare and lies. They last said Gadhafi had been seen in a convoy heading towards Niger," he said in the first message from the fugitive deposed Libyan strongman in several days.