France and Britain have agreed on the need to speed up the transition from President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria to a new government, French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday.

"David Cameron and I are in total agreement -- we must accelerate the political transition (and) help the opposition to form a government," said Hollande, after talks with the British prime minister in London.

Mali does not want African troops to be deployed into combat against Islamic extremists occupying its north, but seeks logistical support from its neighbors, according to a letter seen by Agence France Presse on Thursday.

The letter from interim president Dioncounda Traore to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), dated September 1, requests "help from ECOWAS to recover occupied territories in the north and the fight against terrorism."

Eight candidates are to contest a September 12 election among members of the General National Congress to become Libya's new prime minister, an official source said on Thursday.

Among them are Mahmoud Jibril, who led a transitional council during last year's revolution which toppled Moammar Gadhafi and now heads the liberal National Forces Alliance, and Electricity Minister Awadh al-Barassi, an Islamist.

An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted four former senior police officials of involvement in the killings of demonstrators during the 2011 popular uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The grounds for the decision were not immediately available following the announcement of the acquittals.

In an apartment on the west side of Aleppo, a Syrian general clutches an iPad, its screen showing a Google map depicting every block of the Seif al-Dawla neighborhood.

On a nearby coffee table lie walkie-talkies captured from rebel forces, with which he hopes to listen in on their conversations, and other devices he uses to stay in contact with his officers on the ground.

The Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral James Winnefeld, held talks with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday, the ministry said, as tensions rise over Iran's nuclear program.

A statement from the ministry containing pictures and a video of the two said that Winnefeld met Barak in his Tel Aviv office, without providing details on the meeting.

A bombing in northern Iraq on Thursday killed the commander of a local police anti-terror unit, security and medical officials said.

Colonel Ismail al-Juburi, commander of the anti-terror squad in the town of al-Sharqat, was travelling to the provincial capital Tikrit when a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to his car detonated, killing him and wounding his driver, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor at Tikrit's main hospital said.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Yemeni officer in the capital in a "terrorist" attack late on Wednesday, the third assassination targeting senior officers in two weeks, the defense ministry said.

Colonel Yahya Saleh al-Khalidi, director of the office of the head of Duleimi air base in Sanaa, was shot dead by "criminal elements... in a treacherous terrorist attack," it said in a statement carried by Saba state news agency.

Israel's High Court was on Thursday mulling an urgent appeal on behalf of 20 Eritrean nationals stranded in no-man's land on the border with Egypt for a week after the Jewish state refused them entry.

The appeal was filed by Israeli NGO We Are Refugees in a petition against Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Interior Minister Eli Yishai for refusing to allow the group of Eritreans, who are seeking political asylum, into the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Western and Arab powers Thursday to reassess their stance on Syria and ensure the security of its current leadership in any power transition process.

"Why should Russia be the only one reassessing its position? Perhaps our negotiating partners should reassess their position," Putin told Russia Today television.