Israel was on Sunday buzzing with the possibility of an early election after a key partner in the ruling right-wing coalition threatened to pull out, and the opposition called for an autumn vote.

Fresh speculation about an early general election came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fought off sharp criticism from a former top security chief over his policies on Iran's nuclear program and on peace with the Palestinians.

A Saudi spokesman said late on Saturday that his government has no suspicions about relatives of slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden who were deported from Pakistan last week, breaking an official news blackout over their admission to the kingdom.

"Saudi Arabia acted out of humanitarian considerations... in so far as there are no reports or evidence of any implication in criminal or illegal acts," the official Saudi Press Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday discussed Palestinian reconciliation with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki at the start of an official visit.

The Palestinian leader was greeted with military honors at the airport by President Marzouki and president of the National Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar.

Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi on Saturday attacked Palestinian Authority "censorship" after authorities in Ramallah shut down websites criticizing President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Palestine should not promote censorship, whether on the Internet or in other forms of communication," Ashrawi, an MP and Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member said in a statement.

Russia on Saturday said it backed delivering a "decisive rebuff" to "terrorists" operating in Syria a day after state television reported 11 people killed in a bomb blast outside a Damascus mosque.

"We are convinced that the terrorists operating in Syria need a decisive rebuff, and that all domestic and outside players need to prevent any support" from reaching the rebel forces, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Leading Egyptian dissident Mohammed ElBaradei on Saturday unveiled a new party he said was aimed at rescuing last year's uprising from a "tragic" transitional period under the ruling military.

The former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief and Nobel Laureate said the goal of his new Constitution Party was to "to rescue the great January revolution that has diverted from its course."

Saudi Arabia on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Egypt after angry protests outside his embassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer, sparking a diplomatic spat which Cairo moved swiftly to contain.

State news agency SPA said the embassy in Cairo as well as the kingdom's consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed.

Hungary said two of its nationals were kidnapped in Syria on Saturday by unknown gunmen, adding that Budapest may dispatch agents to the region to collect further information.

"The Foreign Ministry and TEK (Hungary's Anti-Terrorism Center) confirmed that two men working in Syria were kidnapped on Saturday at dawn by unknown gunmen," said Peter Szijjarto, a spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a statement to MTI, the Hungarian state news agency.

Official Syrian newspapers accused U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Saturday of "encouraging terrorists" and U.N.-Arab envoy Kofi Annan of failing to deliver on his promises.

At the same time, Arab and other countries were denounced for ignoring bombings in Syria, which the regime attributes to "terrorists" and the opposition to the government itself.

Top Iraqi politicians, many of whom feel marginalized by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's style of governing, called on Saturday in Arbil for greater democracy in running the country.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Massud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdistan region, Iyad Allawi, the head of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, and Sunni parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, held a meeting in Arbil, the capital of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.