An Arab ministerial committee met on Monday in Qatar to discuss ways of reviving the stalled peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said.

The meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee is being attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, and is being chaired by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.

Qatar pledged $500 million in aid to rebuild Sudan's war-ravaged western region of Darfur, the official QNA news agency on Monday quoted a minister as saying.

"Qatar has pledged an amount of $500 million as grants and contributions for rebuilding Darfur," said the gas-rich emirate's minister of state for cabinet affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmud.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned that the fall of his regime would destabilize the region "for many years", as U.S. President Barack Obama announced talks with Middle East allies over the crisis.

"The whole world knows that if Syria is partitioned, or if terrorist forces take control of the country, there will be direct contagion of the surrounding countries," Assad said in an interview with two Turkish media outlets, video of which was posted on his Facebook page Friday.

The families of nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted by rebels in Syria closed on Friday the shops owned by Syrians in a neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs pending the release of their loved ones.

Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case of the men abducted in May last year, told the National News Agency that the closure of the shops in Hay el-Sellom is a first step in the protest aimed at pressuring the involved parties to set the pilgrims free.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday slammed the burning of an effigy of Qatar's emir in the West Bank, saying it did not reflect the opinion of the Palestinian leadership or people.

"The burning of an effigy of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani does not represent in any way the position of the state of Palestine, Fatah or the Palestinian people," he said in a statement carried by the news agency WAFA.

A Taliban office in Doha could "facilitate" talks with the militants, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview with Qatar-based al-Jazeera television broadcast on Wednesday.

Karzai, who held talks Sunday with the emir of Qatar to discuss opening a Taliban office in the Gulf state, said he was keen on working with the Taliban to help bring about peace in Afghanistan before NATO ends combat operations there next year.

The scheduled opening on Monday of Qatar's new international airport in Doha was indefinitely postponed after it failed to meet security standards, newspapers in the Gulf state reported.

The head of Qatar's civil aviation authority, Abdel Aziz al-Nuaimi, said in a statement late on Sunday that the delay was due to Hamad International Airport "not meeting the newly introduced safety and security requirements of the civil defense department".

Algeria's foreign minister said Monday that any decisions taken by just one Syrian group will have a "very short life", after the opposition coalition was handed Syria's seat at the Arab League.

"It is up to the Syrians to decide, and any decisions coming from just one Syrian group -- more than that, any decision coming from a group of Syrians which is subject to external pressures -- risk having a very short life," said Mourad Medelci, speaking on national radio.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks Sunday with the emir of Qatar during a visit to discuss opening a Taliban office in the Gulf state, as a prelude to a possible peace deal with the militants.

Karzai discussed "issues of mutual interest" with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, state news agency QNA said, without giving details of the low-profile meeting in Doha city.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Qatar on Saturday to discuss Taliban militants opening an office in the Gulf state for peace talks that could end more than a decade of war.

Until earlier this year, Karzai was opposed to the Islamist extremists having a meeting venue in Qatar as he feared that his government would be frozen out of any negotiations.