International efforts to get Palestinians and Israelis back to talks in the next four weeks will be a test of the "sincerity" of the foes, according to Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

And the ambitious target set by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations to restart direct negotiations could become a pressing new deadline, diplomats say.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that “sooner or later” Syrian President Bashar Assad will be ousted by his own people.

Erdogan, in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” to be aired Sunday, he said: “You can never remain in power through cruelty. You can never stand before the will of the people.”

Just over a quarter of voters selected by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates took part in the second-ever polls to elect half the country's advisory Federal National Council, results showed Sunday.

Only 35,877 voters voted on Saturday to elect 20 members of the Federal National Council, representing around 28 percent of some 129,000 Emirati citizens with the right to vote, National Election Committee figures showed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he is ready to accept a Quartet plan that foresees a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of 2012.

"If the Quartet calls for the resumption of direct negotiations without preconditions, I think it's an important thing," Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 10 from the United States.

Lawyers for alleged victims of Egyptian ex-president Hosni Mubarak in his murder trial demanded a new judge on Saturday after military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi testified in court.

Tantawi, who served as defense minister for Mubarak before his overthrow by a popular revolt on February 11, testified behind closed doors.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he wants to amend an "unfair" 1994 agreement on economic ties with Israel, as he returned from New York on Saturday, pledging also to resume talks with Hamas.

"We want to amend the Paris economic agreement between the PLO and Israel because it is not fair," Abbas told reporters en route to Amman, Jordan from the U.N. General Assembly, where he applied for Palestinian U.N. membership.

Libya's new government will be announced next week, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council, said on Saturday.

"The composition of the transitional government will be announced next week," said Abdel Jalil, acknowledging that "differences in views" between members of the NTC and the executive office had delayed a deal.

Turkey has stopped a shipload of weapons destined for Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, warning his country would seize any similar shipment made by air or land.

"Turkey has arrested a ship flying the Syrian flag and carrying weapons," the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as telling the press in New York where he attended the U.N. General Assembly.

France's envoy to Damascus was attacked on Saturday by a crowd throwing stones and eggs at him after he met with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignace IV in the Syrian capital, he said.

Eric Chevallier had met with Ignace in the Christian quarter of Damascus's old city when young people and women began chanting slogans in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and threw eggs and stones at the French delegation when the ambassador was going to his car.

Gulf monarchies urged Yemen's president to "immediately" sign a power transfer plan ending his country's political turmoil in which 130 people have been killed in a week, Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states "affirm their commitment to help their brothers in Yemen to reach an agreement for the immediate implementation of the Gulf Initiative," they announced at a meeting in New York Friday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly.