Israel's top negotiator warned Wednesday that failure in peace talks could lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state with international backing on terms unfavorable to the Israelis.

"Stalemate can lead to a Palestinian state that would be forced on us -- not as the outcome of negotiations that represent the Israeli interest," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel's negotiators at peace talks, told a meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem.

Syrian mainstream and Islamist rebels pressed an advance Wednesday against troops in Homs province aimed at capturing major weapons depots, rebels and a monitoring group said.

Several brigades, among them the Al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, seized control of army positions "near weapons depots, by Mahin village," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Norway is considering a U.S. request to destroy part of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal on Norwegian soil, Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said Wednesday.

Norway has set up a group of experts to study the proposal, which came last month after a U.N. resolution compelling Syria to dismantle its chemical arsenal by mid-2014.

Syria is expected to hand over a detailed plan for the destruction of its chemical arsenal in the next 24 hours, days ahead of deadline, the world's watchdog said Wednesday.

The detailed plan is the next step for Damascus under the terms of a U.S.-Russian deal to head off military strikes on Syria agreed last month which calls for all its chemicals to be destroyed by mid-2014.

Yemeni security forces foiled an attempt by some 300 Al-Qaida inmates to escape after they mutinied in their Sanaa prison, a security official said Wednesday.

The mutiny broke out on Tuesday afternoon when "almost 300 Al-Qaida prisoners, armed with knives and iron bars, attacked prison guards, injuring some of them," the official said, adding that an interrogation officer was among those wounded.

Militants killed an Egyptian soldier in Sinai on Wednesday, while security forces made 72 arrests in a sweep of the peninsula to hunt suspects wanted for a bomb attack, officials said.

The soldier was killed in the Tamada area of central Sinai, a medic and a security official said, adding he was shot in the head.

Six Tunisian police were killed in clashes with gunmen Wednesday, as the country waited for the government's expected resignation and the launch of talks on ending months of political deadlock.

Fighting erupted in the central Sidi Bouzid region, when members of the National Guard raided a house where the militants were holed up, a police source told Agence France Presse.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi insisted Wednesday that only a political solution will help end the "suffocating and dangerous" conflict in Syria, in talks with Jordan's foreign minister.

"The Syrian crisis is suffocating and dangerous. It threatens Syria and the entire region. It is the most dangerous to stability and security" Brahimi said during the meeting with Nasser Judeh, the foreign ministry said.

Tunisia's ruling Islamists and opposition were to begin hard-won negotiations on Wednesday to end months of political deadlock, with Prime Minister Ali Larayedh expected to announce his government's resignation.

Hundreds of opposition protesters gathered in central Tunis by early afternoon to keep up the pressure on the government, amid a heavy police presence, shouting slogans such as: "Government of traitors, resign!"

Gunmen and suicide bombers driving explosives-rigged vehicles killed 25 police and three civilians in a series of coordinated attacks in Iraq's Anbar province overnight, officials and doctors said on Wednesday.

They said the attacks in the western province between 10 pm (19:00 GMT) and midnight Tuesday also wounded a total of 26 police.