Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will on Sunday begin a week-long European tour to Britain, Germany and Russia, his spokesman said on Thursday.

"Abbas will go on Sunday to London, and meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and other British officials on Monday and will brief them on the latest political developments in the region," Nabil Abu Rudeina to Agence France Presse.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday vowed to end police repression in Russia and make government accountable, as he kicked off his campaign for presidential elections after mass protests.

In his manifesto for the March 2012 elections where he plans to take an unprecedented third Kremlin term, Putin also promised to build a strong Russia and retaliate against Western states that failed to listen to Moscow.

Russia on Wednesday said a military attack on Iran would be a "grave mistake" that will reverberate across the world, calling for utmost restraint in the West's escalating tensions with Tehran.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov also slammed oil sanctions against his country's traditional ally, saying they had only hampered nuclear negotiations in the past.

Cypriot authorities released on Wednesday a cargo ship carrying tons of munitions after receiving confirmation the vessel would not proceed to Syria as originally scheduled.

The ship called into Limassol port for refueling on Tuesday following bad weather, said government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou.

Russians frustrated with both Vladimir Putin and the nascent opposition's inability to institute change staged a small protest in Moscow on Sunday under the slogan: "we have had enough".

The unusual counter-demonstration reflected the deep fissures threatening to emerge between the various groups opposed to Putin's 12-year domination of Russia and expected return to the Kremlin in March presidential polls.

A large Russian naval flotilla led by an aircraft carrier has docked in the Syrian port of Tartus in what Damascus state media hailed on Sunday as a show of solidarity by close ally Moscow.

The six-day port call by the carrier group in the Mediterranean port where Russia has a recently expanded naval base is intended to boost ties at a time when President Bashar Assad's government is under mounting Western and Arab pressure over its bloody crackdown on dissent, the Syrian press said.

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi confirmed on Sunday that relations between Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and the Assad regime have reached a low point over the situation in Syria.

In remarks to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Aridi said: “Contacts between MP Walid Jumblat and the Syrian regime have been cut over the differences on the situation in Syria.”

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, on Saturday urged the authorities to change their policies in response to mass protests against fraud-tainted December polls.

"The objective is for properly expressed protests to lead to an adjustment of the political course, that is the most important thing," Kirill said in an interview on state television on Orthodox Christmas Day.

Russia on Saturday said it was concerned after Egyptian prosecutors demanded a death sentence for fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak, calling for humanitarian factors to be considered.

"Such announcements are heard in Moscow with concern," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A total 103 journalists were killed in 2011, with Mexico the most dangerous place to work for the media, Vienna-based press watchdog IPI said Thursday.

This was the second highest toll on record after 2009, when 110 journalists were killed while covering a story.