Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he shared U.S. President Barack Obama's vision for peace in remarks appeared aimed at defusing a deepening row with the U.S. leader.

"I am partner to the president's desire to foster peace and I value his efforts in the past and the present to achieve this goal," said Netanyahu, reacting to Obama's speech to the main pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

Amr Moussa, a leading Egyptian presidential candidate, called Saturday for the delay of parliamentary elections in September until a presidential poll is held or a new constitution put in place.

Moussa, the outgoing Arab League secretary general, said September was too early for a parliamentary election, in which Islamists are expected to make a strong showing at the expense of poorly organized secular groups.

An official from the six-nation Gulf bloc confirmed its secretary general will head to Yemen Saturday ahead of the planned signing of a deal it brokered aimed at ending months of deadly protests.

Gulf Cooperation Council secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani "will travel to Sanaa on Saturday" and "the signature of the plan will take place in his presence on Sunday," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Security forces killed 44 people during anti-regime protests which swept Syria on Friday, with most of the casualties in the western province of Idlib and the central city of Homs, a human right activist told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"Syrian authorities are continuing to use excessive force and live ammunition to face popular protests in various regions throughout the country," said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights, who was reached by telephone.

NATO said on Friday its warplanes hit eight vessels of Moammer Gadhafi's navy, after U.S. President Barack Obama predicted the Libyan strongman would "inevitably" leave or be forced from power.

The authorities in Tripoli slammed Obama's comments as "delusional," while strongly denying reports that Gadhafi's wife and daughter had fled to Tunisia and that Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem had defected.

Syrian security forces on Friday shot dead at least 34 people, including a child, as pro-democracy protests swept the country, with demonstrators pressing on with calls for more freedom in defiance of a fierce crackdown, activists said.

The child was among 12 people killed in the central city of Homs while 15 died in the town of Maaret al-Naaman, near the western city of Idlib, the activists said.

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told thousands of supporters on Friday that he wants an early presidential election to end a political crisis after months of deadly anti-regime protests.

"We call for an early presidential election in a democratic way, in order to avoid bloodshed," Saleh said, a day after officials from his ruling party and the opposition said a Gulf-brokered deal that would see him leave office in 30 days was to be inked on Sunday.

A keynote speech by President Barack Obama on U.S. Middle East policy offered nothing new but simply reaffirmed Washington's staunch support for Israel, Syria's official SANA news agency said on Friday.

"The U.S. president's speech on the Middle East had nothing new as far as his country's policies on the peace process, the situation in Iraq or security or regional stability are concerned," the news agency said.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called an "urgent" leadership meeting Thursday to examine U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy speech, an aide said.

But his tentative partners in the Islamist Hamas movement immediately called on Obama to take "concrete steps" not merely issue "slogans" in support of Palestinian independence and an end to Israeli occupation.

Israel should not be asked to withdraw to the borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War, Israel's prime minister said Thursday, after U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy speech.

In a statement issued after the speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called on Washington to confirm it would adhere to "assurances" given to Israel by former president George W. Bush in 2004.