Syria's fractured opposition groups on Wednesday wound up talks in the Egyptian capital that descended into chaos and even fist fights as they tried to forge a common vision for a transition in their country.

More than 200 participants from 30 different movements as well as independent figures, civil society groups and activists had gathered in Cairo to form a unified front against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Libyans vote on Saturday for a constituent assembly, the first body elected since the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, tasked with steering the country through its critical transition.

"All fundamental questions have to be decided by this elected group of 200 people," Sami Zaptia, managing editor of Libya Herald, told Agence France Presse.

The bodies of the two pilots of a Turkish jet that was downed by Syria on June 22 have been recovered at the bottom of the eastern Mediterranean sea, the Turkish army said Wednesday.

"The bodies (of the two pilots) have been recovered in seabed and work is underway to bring them to surface," the army command said on a statement posted on its website.

Russia is not discussing Bashar Assad with the United States, a deputy foreign minister said Wednesday after a report said the West was pushing Moscow to offer the Syrian president exile.

"The situation with the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad is not being discussed with the United States," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency.

A Yemeni police chief in the capital narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Wednesday as explosives planted in his car blew up just minutes after he exited the vehicle, he told Agence France Presse.

Saleh al-Mustafa, police chief for Sanaa's western Mathbah neighborhood, said he suspects al-Qaida militants were behind the attack.

Syria's President Bashar Assad accused Turkey in an interview published Wednesday of giving logistical backing to Syrian "terrorists" and told Ankara to stop meddling in his country's affairs.

"Turkey's desire to interfere in Syria's internal affairs has put it in a position which unfortunately makes it a party to all the bloody activities" in Syria, he told the daily Cumhuriyet in an interview published Wednesday, the first part of which it published a day ago.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded one of its citizens for smuggling drugs into the conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

Ali al-Muzayyan was executed in the northern region of Jawf after being found guilty of smuggling "a large quantity of amphetamine pills," it said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday in Paris, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"President Abbas will visit France on Thursday and hold important meetings with European and U.S. officials, including French President Francois Hollande and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Friday," Erakat said.

A Turkish fighter jet shot down by Syria last month asked for trouble when it entered Syrian airspace, the Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian source as saying on Wednesday.

"The actions of the Turkish plane were no doubt a provocation. Otherwise how would you explain the fact that the fighter jet flew two, albeit short, sorties in the Syrian airspace?"

The Palestinians want an international probe into the death of former president Yasser Arafat after an investigation showed he may have been poisoned, an official told Agence France Presse Wednesday.

"We call for the formation of an international investigation committee modeled on the international investigation committee set up to look into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said.