Roadside bomb kills 10 civilians in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded under a passenger van in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 10 people, most of them women and children, government officials said.

Eight people were wounded in the blast in the Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan province, President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement. The Interior Ministry said 14 people were wounded.

"Innocent peoples' blood will not be wasted and terrorists will be shamed in this world and hereafter," Karzai said in the statement.

Violence has been increasing across the country as an end of 2014 deadline approaches for most foreign combat troops to leave, putting the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces in control.

Civilians have borne the brunt of much of the violence in the 11-year conflict. A roadside bomb in the relatively peaceful province of Farah killed 17 people and wounded nine on November 16.

Most of the victims in Farah were also women and children, driving in a van as part of a wedding procession.

Three people were killed and more than 90 wounded on Friday, including several foreign soldiers, in a truck bombing in Wardak province near Kabul. Most of the casualties were civilians.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Martin Petty and Robert Birsel)

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Analysis: At peak of powers, Merkel sets sights on third term

BERLIN (Reuters) - In Germany, election campaigns are supposed to be all about parties, policies and platforms, most definitely not personalities. Now that is about to change.

Angela Merkel, at the peak of her political powers, is gearing up to run for a third term and what she hopes will be a place in the history books alongside towering post-war German leaders like Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl.

Next week, her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will informally kick off the campaign with a two-day congress in the northern city of Hanover that is shaping up as a very un-German affair -- a Merkel-centered love-fest similar in style and spectacle to a U.S. presidential convention.

Seven years into her chancellorship, a point when her predecessors Gerhard Schroeder and Kohl were struggling with poor poll ratings, the 58-year-old Lutheran pastor's daughter from East Germany is as popular as ever.

Two in three Germans say she is doing a good job, according to surveys, and many now applaud her handling of the euro zone crisis, where she has performed a stunning feat -- keeping the single currency intact with one policy concession after another, yet still managing to be seen as a staunch defender of German interests.

Criticized early on for her cautious leadership style, Merkel's low-key approach is now hailed by many as positive in a time of turmoil.

"The CDU's main asset in this election is Frau Merkel," said Environment Minister and party ally Peter Altmaier. "She enjoys a huge amount of trust. She has no rivals and is the most popular politician in the country."

A close aide to Merkel who will have a role in shaping her re-election strategy was even more clear: "Of course we will focus this campaign on the chancellor. We'd be stupid not to."

A heavy dose of adulation has been programmed into the congress in Hanover. Delegates have only one main task, a member of the CDU executive committee told German weekly Der Spiegel: "They are to give Angela Merkel a standing ovation of at least seven minutes after her speech."

KINDER, KUECHE, KIRCHE

Still, it would be wrong to assume total harmony within the party, even if that is the message Merkel and her allies are trying to send.

Since taking power in 2005, the chancellor has pushed her party in an entirely new direction. Not all in the CDU are happy about that.

After fighting for years against a minimum wage, the party now officially supports one. And after condemning the nuclear power phase-out introduced by Schroeder's centre-left government, Merkel now says it did not go far or fast enough. Last year she shocked her party with her "Energiewende", or energy revolution, that pushes Germany out of nuclear and into renewables at alarming speed.

On social issues there is also grumbling. The CDU's approach towards women used to be summed up with three simple words: "Kinder, Kueche, Kirche", or children, kitchen, church. Now it is pushing for more childcare spots so that mothers can work and is debating the idea of imposing quotas on businesses to boost the number of women in top positions.

"We need to watch out that in our search for two new voters, we don't lose three old ones," says Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior CDU lawmaker who has clashed with Merkel in recent years.

Other controversial social issues, including a divisive debate about tax treatment of gay couples, are being swept under the table in Hanover in the name of unity.

"The truth is that Merkel has no interest in seeing a big debate on the issues. This congress is supposed to show that the party is fully behind the chancellor and her government," said Frank Decker, a political scientist at Bonn University.

"The CDU is having to appeal to a broader base, to adapt to a changed reality in society, new family structures and a bigger role for women," he added. "A traditional conservative, Christian party must find answers, it must debate these things. But Merkel is refusing to allow this debate to happen, and that breeds resentment."

NO GUARANTEES

In modernizing the CDU, Merkel has made it all but indistinguishable from the other big parties, the Social Democrats and Greens. By design or not, this has made the party even more dependent on Merkel for its identity.

So far that has not been a problem. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), have a comfortable 10 point lead over the next biggest party, the SPD, 10 months before the federal vote.

Working in Merkel and her party's favor has been the disastrous start of her SPD challenger Peer Steinbrueck, who has been dogged by a row over lucrative speaking engagements since he was anointed two months ago.

Still, it would be wrong to assume Merkel's re-election is guaranteed.

The euro zone crisis remains perhaps the biggest risk, as the domestic backlash against her latest aid deal for Greece showed this week.

If Greece's financial problems flare up again before the German election, she is bound to come under fire for cynically delaying a lasting solution to the country's debt woes until after the vote out of fears for her own political future.

An economic slowdown at home could also weigh on her popularity. Hit by weakness in its trading partners, the German economy is expected to contract in the fourth quarter of 2012 and data on Thursday showed unemployment rising for the eighth month in a row.

Perhaps a bigger risk is the shifting party landscape in Germany, notably the collapse of the CDU's traditional partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), with whom Merkel rules in Berlin.

The consequences of this could be felt as soon as January, when Lower Saxony, the German swing-state equivalent of Ohio, holds an election.

Loyal Merkel ally David McAllister, a half-Scot who runs the state, is expected to come out on top in the vote, but may still be booted out of office by a coalition of the SPD and Greens if the FDP fails to make it into the state assembly.

That result would send a worrying signal to the CDU faithful.

"Lower Saxony will help shape the mood for the election year," Michael Meister, a senior CDU lawmaker told Reuters. "There will be a result, and it will carry a message."

Regardless of what happens in Lower Saxony, people close to the chancellor say she cannot rest on her laurels, but must make a convincing case about where she wants to take Germany.

"The big question will be, why again?" her close aide said. "People vote for the future not the past."

Asked what she hoped to accomplish in a third term, the aide pointed to four areas: bringing stability to the euro zone; bedding down her energy revolution; consolidating the budget; and ensuring continued growth and prosperity.

Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University, puts Merkel's chances of winning re-election next year at just 50-50 because the FDP's slide has left her without a "Machtoption", or hope of a majority with her current partner.

Others see it differently. By moving ever closer to the SPD and Greens on policy, Merkel has given the CDU more coalition options, notes Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of German weekly Die Zeit.

"She can go with a revived FDP, with Steinbrueck's SPD and, if the Greens are hungry enough, with them as well," he says, putting her chances at "close to 100 percent".

"She represents the 'good shepherd' in turbulent times. Somehow, people believe, she will get them through the mess safe and sound."

(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Noah Barkin; editing by Janet McBride)

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North Korea pushing ahead with new nuclear reactor: IAEA

VIENNA (Reuters) - North Korea has made further progress in the construction of a new atomic reactor, the U.N. nuclear chief reported on Thursday, a facility that may extend the country's capacity to produce material for nuclear bombs.

Pyongyang "has continued construction of the light water reactor and largely completed work on the exterior of the main buildings," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said.

But, he told the IAEA's 35-nation governing board that the U.N. agency "remains unable to determine the reactor's design features or the likely date for its commissioning."

North Korea says it needs nuclear power to provide electricity, but has also boasted of its nuclear deterrence capability and has traded nuclear technology with Syria, Libya and probably Pakistan.

The light-water reactor is being built at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear facility, which consists of a five-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant where weapons-grade material has been extracted from spent fuel rods.

North Korea was the first country to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and has denied IAEA access to its atomic sites, reneging on a February deal to do so after it announced plans to launch a long-range rocket, in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

It was believed earlier this year to be pushing ahead with plans for a third nuclear test.

Amano said he remained "seriously concerned" about the North's nuclear program, which his inspectors can only monitor via satellite images.

IAEA MONITORING

In May, website 38North said North Korea had resumed construction work on the experimental light water reactor (ELWR) after stopping in December.

38North - run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University and former U.S. State Department official Joel Wit - said the ELWR, when operational, could produce enough material for an additional nuclear bomb each year.

U.S. expert David Albright has estimated a higher potential production of about 20 kg of weapon-grade plutonium a year, enough material for four nuclear weapons or more. But he said it could also produce electricity.

A highly enriched uranium program running alongside this could allow North Korea to increase significantly the number of nuclear devices it could produce, giving it a dual track to nuclear weapons as it has big reserves of uranium.

Amano said: "While the agency continues to monitor the reported uranium enrichment facility, using satellite imagery, its configuration and operational status cannot be established."

North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is under heavy U.N. sanctions for its atomic weapons program.

The IAEA said in August that "significant progress" had been made in the light water reactor's construction since a year earlier, including placing a dome on the containment building.

Also in August, the Institute for Science and International Security - founded by Albright - said satellite imagery from May and June showed construction "progressing apace". It said the reactor could be completed in the second half of 2013.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Damascus fighting cuts off Internet, airport

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.

Residents also reported Internet connections in the capital were down and mobile and land telephone lines working only sporadically in what appeared to be the worst disruption to communications in Syria since an uprising began 20 months ago.

The past two weeks have seen rebels overrunning army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds.

Rebels and activists said the fighting along the road to Damascus airport, southeast of the capital, was heavier in that area than at any other time in the conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a opposition monitoring group, said clashes were particularly intense in Babbila, a suburb bordering the insurgent stronghold of Tadamon.

Nabeel al-Ameer, a spokesman for the rebel Military Council in Damascus, said that a large number of army reinforcements had arrived along the road after three days of scattered clashes ending with rebels seizing side streets to the north of it.

"There are no clashes directly around the airport; the fighting is about 3 or 4 kilometers away," he said via Skype, adding that rebels had taken control of many secondary roads and were expected to advance towards the airport.

He said that he hoped the proximity of the rebels to the airport would dissuade authorities from using it to import military equipment, but the priority now was to block the road.

A Syrian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

Residents said the Internet in Damascus crashed in the early afternoon and mobile and land telephone lines were functioning only intermittently.

A blog post on Renesys, a U.S. company which tracks Internet traffic worldwide, said that at 12:26 p.m. in Damascus, Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down completely.

Emirates said it was suspending daily flights to Damascus "until further notice", but other airlines continued operations.

Airport sources in Cairo said an Egypt Air flight that left at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) had landed in Damascus as scheduled.

"The Egypt Air plane has arrived ... and passengers are all safe but the pilot was instructed to take off back to Cairo without passengers if he felt that the situation there is not good to stay for longer," an official at Cairo airport said.

Elsewhere in Damascus, warplanes bombed Kafr Souseh and Daraya, two neighborhoods that fringe the center of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units, according to opposition activists.

"NOT LAST DAYS YET"

A senior European Union official said that Assad appeared to be preparing for a military showdown around Damascus, possibly by isolating the city with a network of checkpoints.

"The rebels are gaining ground but it is still rather slow. We are not witnessing the last days yet," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

In the north of the country, rebel units launched an offensive to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway that would allow them to block troop movements and cut Assad's main supply route to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

The Observatory said that rebel units from around Idlib province massed early on Thursday morning to attack Wadi al-Deif, a base east of the rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan.

Wadi al-Deif has been a thorn in the side of rebel units who first besieged the station in October but met fierce resistance from government forces, backed up by air strikes.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform but escalated, after a military crackdown on protesters, into a civil war in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad but stopped short of arming rebel fighters as they fear heavy weapons could make their way into the hands of radical Islamist units, who have grown increasingly prominent in the insurgency.

Rebels decry their supporters for not providing them with surface-to-air missiles that they say they need to counter the air force. But recent looting of anti-aircraft missiles from army bases has allowed them to shoot down helicopters and jets.

"So far, there is no evidence that any of the surface-to-air missiles used to date have come from outside Syria," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

"The limited number of surface-to-air missiles that have shown up all appear to have come from Syrian military stock captured by the armed opposition."

He said the number of these missiles in rebel hands was probably over 20 but that will rise significantly as rebels are capturing military bases on an almost-daily basis.

The relatively small number of anti-aircraft missiles looted so far means that many rebel-controlled areas of the country remain vulnerable to air strikes. The Observatory said 15 citizens, including children and women, were killed during a bombing in Aleppo's Ansari district on Thursday.

Activist video footage showed the bodies of at least four children, wrapped in red blankets and apparently wearing pyjamas. Another video showed the immediate aftermath of the attack, with the bodies of children in the street and covered in cement dust. Half of one young boy's head was missing.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Praveen Menon in Dubai and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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PM Cameron opposes press law after hacking scandal

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that he had serious concerns about legislation to regulate the media, risking a split in his coalition after a damning inquiry triggered by a phone-hacking scandal proposed a press watchdog backed in law.

Opposing a legal foundation to an independent press regulator will delight the British media ahead of the 2015 election but will deepen a divide in Cameron's coalition government and within his own party.

"We should be wary of any legislation that has the potential to infringe free speech and the free press," Cameron told parliament, watched from the chamber's gallery by victims of tabloid newspaper phone-hacking who have campaigned for tougher rules governing Britain's recalcitrant media.

"I'm not convinced at this stage that statute is necessary to achieve Lord Justice Leveson's objectives," Cameron said, referring to the judge who has spent a year investigating the press. "I have some serious concerns and misgivings on this recommendation."

The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Ed Miliband, said he supported a proposal by Leveson to back a new independent press watchdog with legislation.

Leveson said he had no intention of ending three centuries of press freedom but condemned sometimes "outrageous" behavior by the press that had "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people".

"The ball moves back into the politicians' court: they must now decide who guards the guardians," Leveson told a news conference in Westminster, opposite the House of Commons.

Leveson's inquiry was ordered by Cameron after public outrage at revelations that reporters at one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids hacked the phone messages of a 13-year-old murder victim, Milly Dowler.

Leveson said there should be a new independent self-regulatory body, which would be recognized in law, something the press and many within Cameron's own party, including senior ministers, have adamantly opposed as an erosion of press freedom.

Nick Clegg, the leader of the junior Liberal Democrat partners in the coalition government, will deliver his own statement to parliament after Cameron, implying that the two disagree on the way forward.

'TOO CLOSE'

Leveson, whose inquiry laid bare phone-hacking, claims of police bribes and the cozy relationship between top editors and the political elite, said the relationship between politicians and the press was too close.

Leveson warned that the close ties formed between the government and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp over the aborted takeover of BSkyB was concerning and had the potential to jeopardize the $12 billion bid.

But he offered little in the way of direct criticism of individuals, ammunition for those who hoped it would condemn Cameron for his links to Murdoch's media empire

He said there was no credible evidence of bias on the part of senior minister and Cameron ally Jeremy Hunt in his handling of the BSkyB takeover, but said the close ties allowed a perception of favoritism.

Inquiry hearings embarrassed Cameron by exposing his close ties to executives at Murdoch's British newspaper empire, notably former top lieutenant Rebekah Brooks, who is facing criminal action over phone-hacking and other alleged illegal actions.

Cameron, three former prime ministers, senior ministers, press barons including the 81-year-old Murdoch, plus an array of celebrities such as Hollywood actor Hugh Grant were among the 164 witnesses to appear before the inquiry.

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge,; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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U.N. set to implicitly recognize Palestinian state, despite threats

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government.

A resolution that would lift the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation General Assembly. At least 15 European states plan to vote for it.

Israel, the United States and a handful of other members are set to vote against what they see as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians, which takes place on the 65th anniversary of the assembly's adoption of resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been leading the campaign to win support for the resolution, which follows an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.

The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East peace envoy David Hale traveled to New York on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider.

The Palestinians gave no sign they were turning back.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated to reporters in Washington on Wednesday the U.S. view that the Palestinian move was misguided and efforts should focus instead on reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.

"The path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," she said. "The only way to get a lasting solution is to commence direct negotiations."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated U.S. warnings that the move could cause a reduction of U.S. economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might take significant deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

Despite its fierce opposition, Israel seems concerned not to find itself diplomatically isolated. It has recently toned down threats of retaliation in the face of wide international support for the initiative, notably among its European allies.

"The decision at the United Nations will change nothing on the ground," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem. "It will not advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. It will delay it further.

CRIMINAL COURT ACCESS

Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full U.N. membership - something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it would allow them access to the International Criminal Court and other international bodies, should they choose to join them.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestine Liberation Organization official, told a news conference in Ramallah that "the Palestinians can't be blackmailed all the time with money."

"If Israel wants to destabilize the whole region, it can," she said. "We are talking to the Arab world about their support, if Israel responds with financial measures, and the EU has indicated they will not stop their support to us."

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. There are 4.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the draft resolution, the Palestinians have pledged to relaunch the peace process immediately following the U.N. vote.

As there is little doubt about how the United States will vote when the resolution is put to a vote sometime after 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority has been concentrating its efforts on lobbying wealthy European states, diplomats say.

With strong support from the developing world that makes up the majority of U.N. members, it is virtually assured of securing more than the requisite simple majority. Palestinian officials hope for more than 130 yes votes.

Abbas has been trying to get as many European votes as possible.

Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all pledged to support the resolution. Britain said it was prepared to vote yes, but only if the Palestinians fulfilled certain conditions.

The fiercely pro-Israel Czech Republic was planning to vote against the move, dashing European hopes of avoiding a three-way split in the continent's vote.

It was unclear whether some of the many undecided Europeans would join the Czechs. Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands plan to abstain, like Estonia and Lithuania.

Ashrawi said the positive responses from European states were encouraging and sent a message of hope to all Palestinians.

"This constitutes a historical turning point and opportunity for the world to rectify a grave historical injustice that the Palestinians have undergone since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948," she said.

A strong backing from European nations could make it awkward for Israel to implement harsh retaliatory measures. But Israel's reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.

Israel also seems wary of weakening the Western-backed Abbas, especially after the political boost rival Hamas received from recent solidarity visits to Gaza by top officials from Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia.

Hamas militants, who control Gaza and have had icy relations with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, unexpectedly offered Abbas their support this week.

(Andrew Quinn in Washington, Noah Browning in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Michelle Nichols in New York, Robert Mueller in Prague and Reuters bureaux in Europe and elsewhere; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Mursi to speak as Egypt's Islamists seek way out of crisis

CAIRO (Reuters) - The body writing Egypt's new constitution began a session to vote on a final draft on Thursday, a move President Mohamed Mursi's allies in the Muslim Brotherhood hope will help end a crisis prompted by a decree expanding his powers.

Mursi is expected to call for national unity in a public address at 7.00 p.m. (1700 GMT) to ease the crisis, which has set off a week of protests and threatens to derail early signs of economic recovery from two years of turmoil.

In an interview with Time, Mursi said the majority supported his decree. But he added: "If we had a constitution, then all of what I have said or done last week will stop."

Two people have been killed and hundreds injured in countrywide protests ignited by the decree Mursi issued last Thursday, which gave him sweeping powers and placed them beyond legal challenge, deepening the divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

Setting the stage for more confrontation, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies have called for pro-Mursi protests on Saturday in Tahrir Square, where a sit-in by the president's opponents entered a seventh day on Thursday.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that backed Mursi for president in June elections, hopes to end the crisis by replacing the controversial decree with an entirely new constitution to be approved by popular referendum.

"May God bless us on this day," Hossam el-Gheriyani, the speaker of the constituent assembly, told members at the start of the session to vote on each of the 234 articles in the draft, which will go to Mursi for approval and then to a plebiscite.

It is a gamble based on the Islamists' belief that they can mobilize voters to win the referendum. They have won all elections held since Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year.

But critics say the bid to finish the constitution quickly could make matters worse.

The constitution is one of the main reasons Mursi and his Islamist backers are at loggerheads with opponents who are boycotting the 100-member constitutional assembly. They say the Islamists have hijacked it to impose their vision of the future.

The assembly's legitimacy has been called into question by a series of court cases demanding its dissolution. Its standing has also been hit by the withdrawal of members including church representatives and liberals.

The Brotherhood argues that approval of the constitution in a referendum would bury all arguments about both the legality of the assembly and the text it has written in the last six months.

Once the assembly approves the draft it will go to Mursi for ratification, a step expected at the weekend. He must then call the referendum within 15 days.

Once the constitution is approved in a referendum, legislative powers will pass straight from Mursi to the upper house of parliament, in line with an article in the new constitution, assembly members said.

DEMOCRATIC CORNERSTONE

"This is an exit. After the referendum, all previous constitutional decrees, including March 2011's decree and the current one that created all this political fuss, will fall automatically after 15 days," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan told Reuters.

Egypt has been without an elected legislature since the Islamist-dominated lower house was dissolved in June. New parliamentary elections cannot happen until the constitution is passed.

The constitution is supposed to be the cornerstone of a new, democratic Egypt following Mubarak's three decades of autocratic rule. Mursi had extended its December 12 deadline by two months, but the assembly speaker said the extra time was not needed.

The constitution will determine the powers of the president and parliament and define the roles of the judiciary and a military establishment that had been at the heart of power for decades until Mubarak's downfall. It will also set out the role of Islamic law, or sharia.

"The secular forces and the church and the judges are not happy with the constitution, the journalists are not happy, so I think this will increase tensions in the country," said Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University. "I don't know how the referendum can be organized if the judges are upset," he added.

Egyptian elections are overseen by the judiciary.

MURSI SAYS HE IS NO PHARAOH

Leading opposition figure and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa slammed the move to accelerate the constitution. He walked out of the assembly earlier this month. "This is nonsensical and one of the steps that shouldn't be taken, given the background of anger and resentment to the current constitutional assembly," he told Reuters.

The decree issued by Mursi has set him further at odds with opponents and worsened already tetchy relations with the judges, many of whom saw it as a threat to their independence. Two of Egypt's courts declared a strike on Wednesday.

Mursi was unrepentant in the interview published overnight.

"I think you have seen the most recent opinion surveys. I think more than 80, around 90 percent of the people in Egypt are — according to these opinion measures — they are with what I have done. It's not against the people, It's with the people, coincides with the benefits," he said.

Among other steps, the decree shielded from judicial review all decisions taken by Mursi until the election of a new parliament.

His opponents say it exposed the autocratic impulses of a man who was once jailed by Mubarak. Western governments expressed concern, and Human Rights Watch said it had given the leader more power than the military establishment he replaced.

A constitution must be in place before a new parliament can be elected. In the Time interview, Mursi disputed his opponents' assertions that he had become a new pharaoh.

"The reason why I went to prison is that I was defending the judiciary and Egyptian judges. I know perfectly what it means to have separation between the three powers, executive power, legislative power and the judiciary," he said.

"The president represents the executive power, and the president is elected by the people. And I'm keen that the people would have complete freedom of elections, and I'm keen on exchange of power through free elections," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan, Patrick Werr and Edmund Blair; Editing by Will Waterman)

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U.S. gives Iran until March to cooperate with IAEA

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States set a March deadline on Thursday for Iran to start cooperating in substance with a U.N. nuclear agency investigation, saying it would otherwise urge reporting the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

Comments by U.S. diplomat Robert Wood to the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency signalled Washington's growing frustration at a lack of results in the IAEA's inquiry into possible military dimensions to Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says the program has only peaceful goals.

"If by March Iran has not begun substantive cooperation with the IAEA, the United States ... would urge the board to consider reporting this lack of progress to the U.N. Security Council," Wood said, according to a copy of his statement.

"Iran cannot be allowed to indefinitely ignore its obligations ... Iran must act now, in substance," Wood said.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano earlier on Thursday said the U.N. agency had made no progress in a year-long push to find out if Iran worked on developing an atomic bomb.

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Tunisia says opposition inciting protests

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's Islamist prime minister said on Thursday he would not resign over violent protests over economic hardship this week that left over 200 injured, accusing opposition parties of sowing disorder.

"In democratic systems we don't force down governments. I'm not going to resign or dissolve the government, it's parliament that has authority to do that," Hamadi Jebali told a news conference. "We know who is behind these events, the opposition parties."

At least 200 people were injured when Tunisians demanding jobs clashed with police on Tuesday and Wednesday in the city of Siliana in a region on the edge of the Sahara desert that has long complained of economic deprivation.

Tunisia's new, elected Islamist-led government has sought to revive the economy in the face of a decline in trade with the crisis-hit euro zone and disputes between secularists and hardline Salafi Islamists over the future direction of the North African Arab state.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Paris activist to test taboos with gay-friendly mosque

PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's first gay and lesbian-friendly mosque opens on Friday in an eastern Paris suburb, in a challenge to mainstream Islam's long tradition of condemning same-sex relationships.

The mosque, set up in a small room inside the house of a Buddhist monk, will welcome transgender and transsexual Muslims and seat men and women together, breaking with another custom where the sexes are normally segregated during prayer.

Its founder, French-Algerian gay activist and practicing Muslim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, will also encourage women to lead Friday prayers, smashing yet another taboo.

"It's a radically inclusive mosque. A mosque where people can come as they are," said Zahed, 35, whose prayer space will be the first in Europe to formally brand itself as a gay-friendly mosque, according to Muslim experts.

The mosque, which for now will be limited to Friday prayer sessions, is opening as religious leaders in France, including senior Muslims, are petitioning against plans by the Socialist government to legalize gay marriage.

"Being homosexual and Muslim is borderline schizophrenic," said one of three gay Muslims who will lead prayers at the mosque, whose floor-to-ceiling windows look out on a garden decorated with Buddhist symbols.

Zahed decided there was a need for a fixed gay-friendly prayer space as membership of his fledgling association "Homosexual Muslims of France" rose to 325 people from just six people when he founded it two years ago.

The prayer leader at Zahed's mosque said hostility to gays prompted many to quit the faith. "France sorely lacks a space like this," said the 38-year-old, asking not to be named.

Zahed's mosque is not supported by any formal Muslim institution and many imams in France oppose it. The Muslim world tends to be more hostile to homosexuality than Judaism or Christianity, where a few denominations welcome gays.

"We know that homosexual Muslims exist but opening a mosque is an aberration," said Abdallah Zekri, who monitors anti-Muslim attacks for France's Muslim council.

OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY

Paris Mosque Rector Dalil Boubakeur told Reuters Zahed's project would stand "outside the community". "We do not point the finger at homosexuals, but we cannot give them credit to the point that they become recognized in our community," he said.

Some of the worshippers at the Grand Mosque, whose minaret towers over a quiet district in central Paris, agreed. Many interpret the Koran as forbidding homosexuality.

"Prayer is a ritual. You can't decide how to do it, you have to do it the way Allah expects you to do it," said Soufiene, a 45-year-old computer scientist on his way out of prayers.

President Francois Hollande's plan to legalize gay marriage is proving highly divisive in a country that is mainly Catholic, though home also to 5 million Muslims, and is wrestling with the issue of whether gay couples should be able to raise children.

Zahed, who believes he is the first Muslim in France to be joined to a same-sex partner in a symbolic ceremony conducted by an imam, says gays or transsexuals who feel their sexuality is conspicuous can struggle to blend in at regular mosques.

While a handful of gay-friendly mosques now exist in Canada, South Africa and the United States, Zahed believes he is pushing a new boundary in France by providing a haven for gays.

"The goal of these Muslims is to promote a form of Islam that is inclusive of progressive values," said Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, an associate researcher at France's Research and Studies Institute on the Arab and Muslim World.

The push by gay Muslims for acceptance comes as a younger generation of Muslims is questioning some of the existing interpretations of the Koran as over-conservative.

"Even though they are still a extreme minority, their views have a solid theological basis. So their message is not having an insignificant impact," Bergeaud-Blackler said.

Zahed married his male partner, also a Muslim, in a civil ceremony in South Africa where same-sex marriage is legal.

Back in France, he found a sympathetic friend in a gay Buddhist monk who offered to host his mosque in his home.

(Additional reporting by Lucien Libert and Sunaina Karkarey; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

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Italy's lower house approves Monti's budget plans

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a package of budget measures including a sales tax hike and a cut in some payroll taxes, aimed at helping the government reach its deficit-cutting targets.

Approval was expected after Prime Minister Mario Monti's government won three confidence votes on Wednesday that it had called to speed up passage of the budget.

The measures will now move to the Senate for approval, which is expected before Christmas.

The Chamber of Deputies approved the plans by 372 votes against 73.

The budget, enshrined in a so-called Stability Law, is central to Monti's efforts to lower Italy's public deficit to 1.8 percent of output next year from a targeted 2.6 percent in 2012.

Monti agreed at the end of October to overhaul the first draft of the budget legislation by replacing a planned income tax cut with a reduction in payroll taxes paid by employers.

The package still includes a one percentage point rise in the highest value-added tax (VAT) rate, which will go into effect next July, bringing it to 22 percent. The lower 10 percent rate will not be increased as previously planned.

The Stability Law is expected to be one of the final pieces of major legislation approved under Monti before Italy gears up for a national election.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte,; Writing by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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Congo army fights back as rebels hold Goma

SAKE/GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congolese troops were fighting back on Thursday against rebels who rejected calls from African leaders to quit the eastern city of Goma, captured earlier this week.

Thousands of people fled the area of clashes around the town of Sake, as M23 rebel fighters rushed from Goma to reinforce their positions there against a counter-offensive by the army.

The rebel movement, widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, has vowed to "liberate" all of the vast, resource-rich country after taking Goma, a provincial capital on the Rwandan border, ramping up tensions in a fragile region.

The head of M23's political arm said the rebels would not retreat despite the call to do so from governments in central Africa, preferring to hold their ground until President Joseph Kabila opens direct talks with them: "We'll stay in Goma waiting for negotiations," Jean-Marie Runiga told Reuters in the city.

"They're going to attack us and we're going to defend ourselves and keep on advancing."

Rebel fighters seized the sprawling lakeside city of a million people on Tuesday after government soldiers retreated and U.N. peacekeepers gave up trying to defend it.

The next day the rebels moved in unopposed to Sake, a strategic town about 25 km (15 miles) west along the main road. It was there that government troops and allied militia were hitting back in fighting the flared up late on Wednesday.

Regional and international leaders have been scrambling to halt the fresh conflagration in the Great Lakes, a region of many colonial-era frontiers and long a tinderbox of ethnic and political conflict, fuelled by mineral deposits.

On Wednesday, foreign ministers from the states of the Great Lakes region demanded the rebels leave Goma and halt their advance, and Kabila - in a concession to the rebels that fell short of opening talks - promised to look into their grievances.

"I'm not confident, because I've already waited for three months in Kampala for talks," Runiga said of a recent spell in the capital of Uganda, which has tried to mediate in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Neighboring Uganda and Rwanda had no right to make demands of M23, added the group's political chief, who styles himself Bishop Runiga, a post he holds in several Congolese churches.

He said M23 wanted aid groups to return to Goma, after they evacuated during the fighting. Reuters correspondents in the city saw some aid workers driving in the town on Thursday.

RENEWED CLASHES

Thousands of residents fled the town of Sake on Thursday, a Reuters correspondent in Sake said, as gun battles continued.

"It's no problem, it's just war," Vianney Kazarama, an M23 spokesman, said by telephone, adding that the clashes had begun late on Wednesday.

Several truckloads of M23 fighters sped toward Sake from Goma as the fighting raged on Thursday afternoon.

M23 takes its name from a peace deal, signed on March 23, 2009, that was meant to bring former rebels into the national army, but which the group says the government has violated.

The group has since sought to broaden its support in Congo by tapping into popular frustrations over the government's slow pace of reform in one of the world's least developed and most turbulent nations.

But the effort has faced hurdles amid mounting evidence of Rwanda's involvement in the insurgency.

Kabila's government insists the M23 rebellion is a creation of Rwanda, which has intervened repeatedly in Congo over the past 18 years - and the claim is backed by U.N. experts who say Kigali is both commanding and supporting the insurgency in part to control the region's minerals.

Many of Rwanda's international allies, including the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and the European Union have suspended some aid over the allegations.

Britain, which unblocked part of its frozen aid in September citing Rwandan efforts to solve the crisis, said it was now considering new evidence that could affect future aid.

"We judge the overall body of evidence of Rwandan involvement with M23 in the DRC to be credible and compelling," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

"These allegations will necessarily be a key factor in future aid decisions to the Government of Rwanda."

The United Nations on Wednesday defended its failed effort to prevent rebels from seizing Goma, saying its helicopters had fired hundreds of rockets at rebels but were unable to beat them back as their ranks swelled dramatically.

Runiga said M23 had the capacity to hang on to Goma, after its force was bolstered by mutinying Congolese soldiers from Kabila's army, the FARDC.

"Absolutely," he said. "Firstly we have a disciplined army, and also we have the FARDC soldiers who've joined us.

"They're our brothers, they'll be retrained and recycled then we'll work with them."

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by David Lewis and Alastair Macdonald)

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Opera boss gets top job at scandal-hit BBC

LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC appointed a former journalist who runs the Royal Opera House to lead the broadcaster on Thursday after sex abuse scandals that shook public trust in one of Britain's most treasured institutions.

Tony Hall, a former a former director of BBC news, will replace George Entwistle who resigned as director-general this month after failing to get to grips with a scandal that threw the 90-year-old state-funded organization into turmoil.

Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which overseas the broadcaster and appoints its chief, said Hall was "the right person to lead the BBC out of its current crisis" and that his journalism experience would be "invaluable as the BBC looks to rebuild its reputation."

Hall, who will take up the role in March, left the BBC shortly after missing out on the top job in 2001.

His predecessor lasted just 54 days in the job, widely criticized for lacking leadership amid a scandal centering on the former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, who died last year and has since been exposed as a predatory serial child abuser.

Already under fire for his handling of the Savile affair, Entwistle quit after the BBC's flagship program "Newsnight" wrongly claimed a senior Conservative politician had also been involved in child sex abuse.

"The past eight weeks have been very traumatic for the BBC but this is a significant day ... (that) marks the beginning of a new phase," Patten said in a statement.

In early reaction, media analysts greeted the appointment of Hall as a sound choice.

"He is an insider in the sense that the BBC will not be strange to him, but he is an outsider in the sense that he has good experience of running quite a difficult public sector institution, and doing so rather well," said Steven Barnett, professor of communication at Westminster University.

Hall, he added, was "definitely someone who the BBC can rely on to get it out of the mess that it is in now."

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University, London said: "I'm delighted. I think he's a very wise appointment.

"He's a rare combination: someone who rose very high at the BBC, but who's also done well outside it.

"I think he covers both essential facets of what you need in a director-general. He has news experience - which will be essential to clean up this Newsnight mess - and he has business experience at the Royal Opera House."

John Whittingdale, chairman of parliament's media committee, said the Trust had been sensible to move quickly in making a new appointment but he questioned whether Hall would be able to deal with reforming BBC bureaucracy.

"The area where there does need to be strong leadership is in streamlining and getting to grips with the bureaucracy and structure within the BBC," Whittingdale told Reuters.

"That, possibly, is an area where Tony Hall doesn't have experience and there might have been a case for somebody with more external management experience."

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle and Peter Schwartzstein; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Sudan says arrests ex-spy chief after foiled plot

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan arrested its former spy chief and other senior military and security officers on Thursday after foiling what officials said was a plot to incite chaos and target leaders in this oil-producing African state.

Witnesses told Reuters they saw army tanks and armored vehicles moving down a main street in the centre of Khartoum around midnight, but life in the city was normal during the day with shops in the centre bustling with customers.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has kept up a 23-year hold on power, even as a series of uprisings troubled the country's poor border areas, including the conflict-torn region of Darfur.

But Sudan has been stuck in economic crisis since the south - the source of most of its known oil-reserves - declared independence last year under the terms of a peace deal.

High prices for food have added to widespread public anger over losing the south and have emboldened opposition activists to call for protests. Analysts say the crisis has also exacerbated divisions in the government and squeezed the patronage system they say Bashir has relied on.

(To see a special report on Bashir's Sudan, please click on ID:nL3E8MD574])

Unrest over price rises and food and fuel shortages has preceded coups in Sudan in the past.

Salah Gosh, former head of Sudan's powerful intelligence and security agency, was arrested with others on suspicion of "inciting chaos", "targeting" some leaders and spreading rumors about Bashir's health, the information minister told reporters.

Bashir, 68, has undergone throat surgery twice since the summer. Officials insist he is in good health.

"A lot of evidence was gathered showing there is a movement aiming to incite chaos, target some leaders and undermine the country's stability," the minister Ahmed Belal Osman, said.

"The situation is now totally stable," he added, naming Gosh and two other arrested officers including Wad Ibrahim, a prominent Islamist in the army.

Some Islamists inside the army and the ruling National Congress Party have said that Bashir and other senior leaders have abandoned the religious values of the 1989 coup and have concentrated decision-making in the hands of a few people.

Some also feel Bashir has been too soft on South Sudan, which temporarily wrong-footed the Sudanese army by seizing a major oilfield during border fighting in April - a shock to many officers.

TANKS HEADED DOWNTOWN

Witnesses said they saw military vehicles on a major street that runs alongside the city's airport overnight.

"We saw something unusual in Khartoum ... four armored vehicles and two tanks on Abeid Khatim Street heading in the direction of downtown," one witness said, asking not to be named.

Security at the defense ministry, intelligence headquarters and other buildings associated with military and security authorities appeared normal early in the morning, a Reuters witness in the city said.

Sudan has been plagued by political conflicts and crises for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1956.

Decades of civil war between the north and south culminated with South Sudan's independence in July last year under a 2005 peace deal.

Tensions in both nations and between the two states have been high since then. The two countries accused one another of incursions in disputed border zones on Wednesday, a setback to recent security and border deals.

Small demonstrations against cuts in fuel subsidies and other austerity measures broke out across Sudan in June but petered out after a security crackdown and the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"PLOTTING LIKE BREATHING"

Gosh was once among Sudan's most influential officials. As chief of the National Intelligence and Security Service, he headed what is one of the country's most powerful institutions alongside the army.

Bashir removed Gosh as spy chief in 2009, replacing him with the current head Mohammed Atta al-Moula. Officials did not explain the decision to sack Gosh at the time, but Khartoum political circles widely speculated the former chief was suspected of plotting against Bashir.

A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2008 quoted a government official as saying Gosh had mused about the possibility an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Bashir could lead some to try to replace the president.

"Conspiracy and plotting is like breathing in Sudan," the cable noted.

Gosh had been appointed presidential adviser on security affairs, but was also removed from that position last year.

Western rights groups have accused Gosh of complicity in abuses in the country's Darfur region, which has endured a nearly decade-old insurgency.

But while the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Bashir and other officials on charges of war crimes in Darfur, Gosh has never been indicted.

The former spy chief is also described by historians and analysts as a key interlocutor with U.S. officials when Sudan was cooperating with the United States by providing information on al Qaeda in the years after the September 11 attacks.

(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Georgia PM aims to strengthen his role before presidential vote

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's new prime minister aims to change the constitution to boost his powers before a presidential vote next year, he said on Thursday, but will not try to impeach rival President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Bidzina Ivanishvili won power in a parliamentary election last month that ended Saakashvili's nine-year political dominance but left Georgia with an uneasy "cohabitation" government, with the president still in place, at least until October.

"We are not going to initiate the (president's) impeachment," Ivanishvili told a news conference, adding: "We will probably initiate constitutional amendments which will be clear to everyone."

Under Ivanishvili, authorities have arrested more than 10 former senior officials, including an ex-interior minister and the army chief-of-staff, raising opposition fears of a purge and drawing criticism from Saakashvili's allies in the West.

Parliament approved the constitutional changes - giving more powers to the legislature and the prime minister - before the election which brought the billionaire businessman to office - but they were due to take effect only after the October 2013 presidential election.

"We want these amendments to come into force earlier," Ivanishvili said. "Not after the election in October 2013, but earlier."

Ivanishvili signaled that relations with the West were a priority by making Brussels his first foreign trip last week. But he said a planned visit to the United States would be postponed until next year.

NATO and European Union leaders upbraided the prime minister over the arrest of political opponents as he visited Brussels and Ivanishvili said afterwards that his four-day absence had harmed the government's work.

The 56-year-old made his fortune mainly in Russia and faces a difficult balancing act between the West and Moscow, which welcomed his election victory. He ruled out a visit to Russia, but said he might meet Russian officials in some neutral territory.

"My visit to Russia is impossible as there are Russian embassies in (disputed territories) Abkhazia and South Ossetia ... but there might be meetings in Europe or somewhere else, although it's too early to talk about it," Ivanishvili said.

Saakashvili secured a promise of eventual NATO membership for his country of 4.5 million, but the alliance rejected calls led by former U.S. President George W. Bush for quick accession in 2008.

Months later, Georgia fought a five-day war with Russia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia says are now independent states.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Gaza ceasefire holds but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held firm on Thursday with scenes of joy among the ruins in Gaza over what Palestinians hailed as a victory, and both sides saying their fingers were still on the trigger.

In the sudden calm, Palestinians who had been under Israeli bombs for eight days poured into Gaza streets for a celebratory rally, walking past wrecked houses and government buildings.

But as a precaution, schools stayed closed in southern Israel, where nerves were jangled by warning sirens - a false alarm, the army said - after a constant rain of rockets during the most serious Israeli-Palestinian fighting in four years.

Israel had launched its strikes last week with a declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its territory from Gaza, ruled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which denies Israel's right to exist. Hamas had responded with more rockets.

The truce brokered by Egypt's new Islamist leaders, working with the United States, headed off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

It was the fruit of intensive diplomacy spurred by U.S. President Barack Obama, who sent his secretary of state to Cairo and backed her up with phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.

Mursi's role in cajoling his Islamist soulmates in Gaza into the U.S.-backed deal with Israel suggested that Washington can find ways to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood leader whom Egyptians elected after toppling former U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, a bulwark of American policy in the Middle East for 30 years.

Mursi, preoccupied with Egypt's economic crisis, cannot afford to tamper with a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, despite its unpopularity with Egyptians, and needs U.S. financial aid.

MORE DEATHS

Despite the quiet on the battlefield, the death toll from the Gaza conflict crept up on both sides.

The body of Mohammed al-Dalu, 25, was recovered from the rubble of a house where nine of his relatives - four children and five women - were killed by an Israeli bomb this week.

That raised to 163 the number of Palestinians killed, more than half of them civilians, including 37 children, during the Israeli onslaught, according to Gaza medical officials.

Nearly 1,400 rockets struck Israel, killing four civilians and two soldiers, including an officer who died on Thursday of wounds sustained the day before, the Israeli army said.

Israel dropped 1,000 times as much explosive on the Gaza Strip as landed on its soil, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

Municipal workers in Gaza began cleaning streets and removing the rubble of bombed buildings. Stores opened and people flocked to markets to buy food.

Jubilant crowds celebrated, with most people waving green Hamas flags but some carrying the yellow emblems of the rival Fatah group, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

That marked a rare show of unity five years after Hamas, which won a Palestinian poll in 2006, forcibly wrested Gaza from Fatah, still dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel began ferrying tanks northwards, away from the border, on transporters. It plans to discharge gradually tens of thousands of reservists called up for a possible Gaza invasion.

But trust between Israel and Hamas remains in short supply and both said they might well have to fight again.

"The battle with the enemy has not ended yet," Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said at an event to mourn its acting military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari, whose killing by Israel on November 14 set off this round.

"HANDS ON TRIGGER"

The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said in Cairo his Islamist movement would respect the truce, but warned that if Israel violated it "our hands are on the trigger".

Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told Israelis a tougher approach might be required in the future.

Facing a national election in two months, he swiftly came under fire from opposition politicians who had rallied to his side during the fighting but now contend he emerged from the conflict with no real gains for Israel.

"You don't settle with terrorism, you defeat it. And unfortunately, a decisive victory has not been achieved and we did not recharge our deterrence," Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition Kadima party, wrote on his Facebook page.

In a speech, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, urged all Palestinian factions to respect the ceasefire and said his government and security services would monitor compliance.

According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.

The deal also provides for easing Israeli curbs on Gaza's residents, but the two sides disagreed on what this meant.

Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas won a Palestinian election in 2006, but Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings with Israel and Egypt.

Israel let dozens of trucks carry supplies into the Palestinian enclave during the fighting. Residents there have long complained that Israeli restrictions blight their economy.

Barak said Hamas, which declared November 22 a national holiday to mark its "victory", had suffered heavy military blows.

"A large part of the mid-range rockets were destroyed. Hamas managed to hit Israel's built-up areas with around a metric tone of explosives, and Gaza targets got around 1,000 metric tonnes," he said.

He dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas, saying: "The right to self-defense trumps any piece of paper."

He appeared to confirm, however, a Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier that the army says has prevented Hamas raids.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Egypt's Mursi sacks general prosecutor, appoints another

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Thursday sacked Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, the general prosecutor, to try to appease protesters demanding the retrial of officials they say were involved in orchestrating violence against them during last year's uprising.

Mursi tried to remove Abdel Maguid Mahmoud in October to calm protesters furious about the acquittal of a number of senior state officials who had stood trial over the issue but was forced to keep him in place after judges protested.

Talat Abdullah was appointed the new general prosecutor. "The public prosecutor general will occupy his post for a period of four years," said Yasser Ali, a presidential spokesman.

"The public general prosecutor is to be appointed from among members of the judiciary authority by the president for a period of four years," said Yasser Ali in a statement aired live on state TV.

Ali said the new decree applies immediately, thereby forcing the current prosecutor from his post. Mahmoud had been public prosecutor for many years.

(Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Jon Hemming)

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Poland's ruling party seeks charges against opposition leader

WARSAW (Reuters) - The party of Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday it would vote to have the country's main opposition leader tried at a special tribunal on charges of leading a witch hunt against rivals while his party was in power.

The move marks a new low in relations between Tusk, the leader of the Civic Platform party, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the Law and Justice Party, who are engaged in an angry war of words.

The allegations - denied by Kaczynski - were made several years ago, but until now Tusk's party was reluctant to back a vote in parliament required to bring Kaczynski, and his former justice minister, before the tribunal.

"Our intention is mainly to protect the state against the abuse of the constitution by those in power in Poland," said Rafal Grupinski, the Civic Platform's parliamentary leader.

The abuse-of-office charges would be heard by the State Tribunal, a special political court. The tribunal could strip Kaczynski and former minister Zbigniew Ziobro of their parliamentary mandates.

Charges can be initiated in the tribunal if three-fifths of the lower house of parliament vote in support. No date has been set for a parliamentary vote. Tusk's party and two leftist-opposition parties have said they would vote for the charges, leaving them two votes short of the required threshold.

The charges stem from the suicide of leftist politician Barbara Blida in April 2007. When police arrived at her home to arrest her as part of a corruption investigation, she went into the bathroom and shot herself in the heart.

Blida's supporters said she was a victim of a politically-motivated campaign by Kaczynski's party to sideline its opponents. Kaczynski and Ziobro say the investigation into Blida was part of a legitimate effort to root out high-level graft.

Some Civic Platform leaders feared backing charges in the tribunal would exacerbate already difficult relations with Kaczynski, and could be interpreted by some as the government cracking down on dissent.

But in a sign the Civic Platform was taking a harder line against Law and Justice, Tusk accused Kaczynski on Thursday of creating an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred.

Kaczynski angered Tusk when last month he suggested the prime minister was in some way behind a plane crash in Russia in 2010 which killed Kaczynski's twin brother, Lech, and dozens of other officials.

An official investigation blamed the crash on a combination of bad weather and misjudgments by the crew and ground control.

Tusk said this sort of accusation was driving some people to take extreme actions. He has cited the example of a 45-year-old radical nationalist arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up parliament.

"If somebody thinks of himself as a patriot and believes Kaczynski, that Poland is ruled by killers, then I'm not surprised that some react in this way," Tusk said.

"It's not like everybody can just use words that won't leave a mark in people's minds and hearts," he said.

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Syria rebels capture army base in eastern oil region

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels captured an army base in an eastern oil province on Thursday, further weakening President Bashar al-Assad's control in the strategic region bordering Iraq.

The capture of the artillery base on the outskirts of Mayadeen, a town on the Euphrates river near some of Syria's main oilfields, followed rebel takeovers of military installations in the north and centre of the country this week.

Recent rebel momentum shows the increasing potency of the mainly Sunni Muslim fighters trying to topple Assad, who belongs to the Alawite minority linked to Shi'ite Islam. But insurgents have often had to retreat quickly after making advances to avoid strikes by the president's air force.

"The Mayadeen military base fell at 8.30 a.m. (0630 GMT)," Abu Laila, an official in the Military Revolutionary Council in the province, told Reuters. He said 44 rebel fighters had been killed in the operation to capture the base.

"The whole countryside, from the Iraqi border and along the Euphrates to the city of Deir al-Zor, is now under rebel control," he said.

Another opposition source in contact with rebels confirmed the base, 42 km (26 miles) south-east of Deir al-Zor, had fallen.

Video posted online showed rebels on motorcycles and trucks apparently inside the base waving victory signs as smoke rose from two buildings. Artillery pieces could be seen on the ground and a tank transporter stood abandoned.

Severe restrictions on non-state media make it impossible to verify opposition reports independently.

Activists say 38,000 people have been killed in the 20-month uprising which threatens to draw in regional Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers. Hundreds of thousands have fled the country and 2.5 million are displaced, aid groups say.

Western states, anxious to avoid another costly Middle East conflict and wary of backing rebels who include Islamist militants, have stayed on the sidelines, although France and Britain formally recognized a newly formed opposition coalition as the sole representative of the Syrians this month.

Russia, which along with China has blocked three resolutions which could have led to U.N. sanctions against Assad, criticized on Thursday proposals for NATO to deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey near the Syrian border.

"This would not foster stability in the region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

REBEL GAINS

The capture of the Mayadeen base leaves Assad in control of just three major army bases in Deir al-Zor province, said Sheikh Nawaf al-Bashir, a local tribal leader. He said rebels now held the main road to Iraq, from the outskirts of Deir al-Zor city to the border crossing of Albu Kamal.

The rebel move follows the capture last week of a military airport on the Iraqi border southeast of Mayadeen. In the last five days rebels have also stormed a special forces base near Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, and an air defense position in the southern suburbs of Damascus.

In another setback for Assad, his forces pulled back on Thursday from three positions south of the town of Maarat al-Numan, on the highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The area has seen heavy fighting between rebel forces, which have held the town for several weeks, and soldiers camped in a nearby military base, just 500 meters from the highway.

Near Damascus, opposition campaigners said fighting continued around the south-western suburb of Daraya and the army kept up heavy bombardment of the town, where Free Syrian Army fighters appeared to be entrenched.

To the east, clashes were also reported in the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar, which is adjacent to the main Abbasid Square. A mother, her daughter and her sister's husband were killed in shelling aimed at pushing back rebels, activists said.

Rebels in the south Damascus district of Hajar al-Aswad showed video of a captured air defense officer they identified as Colonel Bashir al-Saleh, flanked by two masked rebels carrying AK47s.

So far Assad's core military units, composed mainly of members of his Alawite minority sect, have prevented a sustained rebel push into the heart of the capital itself. The rebels have yet to hold a major Syrian city.

But activists say the rebels are gaining strength in Damascus, partly because they are being joined by fighters from outlying regions. While Assad's forces control main road junctions there have been guerrilla attacks in the last few days near Damascus Airport and rebels have expanded control of the mixed urban and farmland regions around the capital.

The Observatory said army shells struck a building next to Aleppo's Dar al-Shifaa hospital on Wednesday, one of the main rebel medical centers, killing 15 people. Most of the dead were fighters but a doctor and three children also died, it said.

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Robin Pomeroy)

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New Ivory Coast prime minister takes finance post too

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast announced a new government on Thursday in which newly appointed Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan will also take the finance and economy portfolio.

Ivory Coast, which is recovering from a 2011 civil war, holds a defaulted $2.3 billion bond and recently came to an agreement with investors on rescheduling missed coupon payments over the next two years.

President Alassane Ouattara named Duncan, a member of his allied PDCI party and foreign minister in the previous cabinet, as prime minister on Wednesday, after dissolving his government last week over a lack of coalition solidarity.

Charles Koffi Diby, the former finance minister who has been the lead figure in Ivory Coast's efforts to renegotiate its bond, will take over the foreign ministry, a statement from the president's office said.

Niale Kaba, an economist who served as minister of housing promotion in the previous cabinet, will serve as minister delegated to the prime minister responsible for the economy and finance.

Many people in Ivory Coast had predicted sweeping changes to the cabinet after the surprise dismissal of the ministers last week. Though the number of cabinet positions was slashed to 28 from 39 in the reshuffle, other changes were minor.

There were no changes at the defense or agriculture ministries in the West African state, which is the world's largest cocoa grower and also a significant coffee producer.

Duncan's nomination ensures Ouattara is sticking to a deal that saw the PDCI throw its weight behind him during a 2010 election run-off in return for the prime minister's job.

Duncan, an economist, has served as prime minister once before under former president Henri Konan Bedie and was economy and finance minister under Ouattara's premiership in the early 1990s.

"Overall I think there's no earthquake. What's interesting is that Daniel Kablan Duncan is the new prime minister and will also assume the economy and finance portfolios," Samir Gadio, emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank, said.

"One could even argue that the reform-minded duo who attempted to stabilize the faltering Ivorian economy in the early 1990s has been reassembled," he said.

(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Police make new arrest in Savile case

LONDON (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man in his 60s from the central English county of Bedfordshire as part of an investigation into alleged child abuse centering on former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.

Police said in a statement the man, who they declined to name, was arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of sexual offences and taken into custody.

It said that so far 450 victims have come forward and that police had recorded 200 allegations of sexual assault.

Police are dividing their investigation into three strands: offences allegedly committed alone by Savile, who died last year aged 84, offences committed by him with others and offences committed by others alone.

The statement said Thursday's arrest fell into the third category, "others." It was the fourth arrest in an operation police have codenamed "Yewtree".

The allegations of abuse have shaken Britain's state-funded broadcaster and shocked fans of Savile, who was as famous for his charity work as he was for his eccentric TV style.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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China names conservative, older leadership

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party unveiled an older, conservative leadership line-up on Thursday that appears unlikely to take the drastic action needed to tackle pressing issues like social unrest, environmental degradation and corruption.

New party chief Xi Jinping, premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang and vice-premier in charge of economic affairs Wang Qishan, all named as expected to the elite decision-making Politburo Standing Committee, are considered cautious reformers. The other four members have the reputation of being conservative.

The line-up belied any hopes that Xi would usher in a leadership that would take bold steps to deal with slowing growth in the world's second-biggest economy, or begin to ease the Communist Party's iron grip on the most populous nation.

"We're not going to see any political reform because too many people in the system see it as a slippery slope to extinction," said David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

"They see it entirely through the prism of the Soviet Union, the Arab Spring and the Colour Revolutions in Central Asia, so they're not going to go there."

Vice-Premier Wang, the most reform-minded in the line-up, has been given the role of fighting widespread graft, identified by both Xi and outgoing President Hu Jintao as the biggest danger faced by the party and the state.

The run-up to the handover has been overshadowed by the party's biggest scandal in decades, with former high-flyer Bo Xilai sacked as party boss of southwestern Chongqing city after his wife was accused of murdering a British businessman.

Bo, who has not been seen in public since early this year, faces possible charges of corruption and abuse of power.

One source said an informal poll was held by over 200 voting members in the party's central committee to choose the seven members of the standing committee from among 10 candidates. Two of them who had strong reform credentials - Guangdong party boss Wang Yang and party organization head Li Yuanchao - failed to make it, along with the lone woman candidate Liu Yandong.

The source, who has ties to the leadership, told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Wang and Li Yuanchao, both allies of Hu, did not make it to the standing committee because party elders felt they were too liberal.

However, all three are in the 25-member Politburo, a group that ranks below the standing committee. It was earlier believed the voting was confined to the Politburo.

OLDER

In the end, the seven-member leadership has an average age of 63.4 years compared with 62.1 five years ago. Xi led the others out in a parade at the Great Hall of the People, with all seven dressed in identical dark blue suits, all but one set off by red or maroon ties.

The final line-up of the team and even the number was speculated on for weeks. The committee was cut to seven members from nine, which should ease consensus building and decision making.

Except for Xi and his deputy Li Keqiang, all the others in the standing committee - the innermost circle of power in China's authoritarian government - are 64 or above and will have to retire within five years, when the next party congress is held.

That means the party may just tread water on the most vital reforms until then, although after that, Xi would probably have more independence in choosing his team. The current line-up has been finalized by Xi and Hu, and by former president Jiang Zemin, who has wielded considerable influence in the party after the tumult over the Bo Xilai scandal.

Wang and Li Yuanchao could make it to the standing committee at the next party congress in 2017, perhaps along with so-called "sixth generation" leaders like Inner Mongolia party chief Hu Chunhua.

"The leadership is divided," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, adding however that the new leadership would find it easier to make progress on economic reform rather than political change.

"It's easier for them to move to a new growth model. I think they agree upon that and that won't be the hardest task. But I see a lot of political paralysis."

Tony Saich, a China politics expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said: "To me it smacks of a holding pattern. I think the understanding is that Wang Yang has a good shot in five years' time."

"SEVERE CHALLENGES"

Besides party chief, Xi was also appointed head of the party's top military body, which gives him two of the three most important posts in the country. He will take over from Hu as president in March.

Jiang, who was Hu's predecessor, did not give up the military post until two years after giving up the party leadership.

Xi said in an address that he understood the people's desire for a better life but warned of severe challenges going forward.

"We are not complacent, and we will never rest on our laurels," he said after introducing the standing committee at the Great Hall of the People in a carefully choreographed ceremony carried live on state television.

"Under the new conditions, our party faces many severe challenges, and there are also many pressing problems within the party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucracy caused by some party officials."

North Korean-trained economist Zhang Dejiang is expected to head the largely rubber-stamp parliament, while Shanghai party boss Yu Zhengsheng is likely to head parliament's advisory body, according to the order in which their names were announced.

Tianjin party chief Zhang Gaoli and Liu Yunshan, a conservative who has kept domestic media on a tight leash, make up the rest of the group. Zhang should become executive vice premier.

"Words from the new leadership will be reform-minded, but deeds would be very cautious at least in economic and financial restructuring," said Alberto Forchielli, managing partner at Mandarin Capital Partners in Shanghai.

Advocates of reform are pressing Xi to cut back the privileges of state-owned firms, make it easier for rural migrants to settle in cities, fix a fiscal system that encourages local governments to live off land expropriations and, above all, tether the powers of a state that they say risks suffocating growth and fanning discontent.

With growing public anger and unrest over everything from corruption to environmental degradation, there may also be cautious efforts to answer calls for more political reform, though nobody seriously expects a move towards full democracy.

The party could introduce experimental measures to broaden inner-party democracy - in other words, encouraging greater debate within the party - but stability remains a top concern and one-party rule will be safeguarded.

In contrast to the mounting excitement until the announcement of the standing committee at the Great Hall of the People, the unveiling barely caused a ripple in China's vast countryside.

"We're not really that interested," said Chen Yongjiang, a fruit and vegetable farmer in Chenjiapu, a snow-covered village in Hebei province.

"For those of us in the farmlands and the mountains, as long as they make life better for us, we're happy."

(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim, Sabrina Mao and Sally Huang; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Ireland to clarify abortion rules after woman's death

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's government on Thursday pledged to clarify its abortion laws after a woman, who was denied a termination, died from septicemia in an Irish hospital.

Thousands held a candle-lit vigil outside parliament on Wednesday after news broke of the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian Hindu, following a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

Activists in Ireland, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country which has some of the world's most restrictive laws on abortion, say a lack of legal clarity about when termination's are justified may have contributed to her death.

"I was deeply disturbed yesterday by what Savita's husband said. I don't think as a country we should allow a situation where women's rights are put at risk in this way," Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore told parliament on Thursday.

"There is no question of equivocation. We need to bring legal clarity to this issue and that is what we are going to do," he said.

Irish law does not specify under what circumstances the threat to the life or health of the mother is high enough to justify a termination, leaving doctors to decide.

After several challenges, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland must clarify its position.

The government has received recommendations from an expert panel after a delay of several months and would report before the end of the month, Gilmore said. Critics say the government has been dragging its heels to avoid confronting the issue.

The fact that Halappanavar is a foreign national has heightened the government's embarrassment. The story was on the front of several large Indian newspapers on Thursday.

The Indian government said on Thursday it deeply regretted Halappanavar's death. "The death of an Indian national in such circumstances is a matter of concern," a spokesman said.

Her death has dominated debate in Ireland's parliament since news of it broke on Wednesday.

Her photograph was spread across the front pages of all Ireland's major newspapers on Thursday, while editorials demanded action from politicians, who have failed for decades to clarify the law.

In 1992, when challenged in the "X-case" involving a 14-year-old rape victim, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was permitted when the woman's life was at risk, but an earlier constitutional amendment banning abortion remains in place.

Despite a dramatic waning of the influence of the Catholic Church, which dominated politics in the country until the 1980s, successive governments have been loath to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin in Dehli; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Russia threatens tough response if U.S. backs rights bill

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States on Thursday to expect a tough response if Congress passes "unfriendly and provocative" legislation designed to punish Russian officials for human rights violations.

The Foreign Ministry said U.S.-Russian ties were sure to suffer if lawmakers back a move directing the U.S. government to deny visas to Russian officials involved in the detention, abuse or death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in jail in 2009.

"Such a step will unavoidably have a negative effect on the whole range of Russian-U.S. relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a news briefing.

"We will certainly not leave the introduction of essentially anti-Russian visa and financial sanctions without consequences," he said. "We will have to react, and react toughly, depending on the final version of this unfriendly provocative act."

It did not specify how Russia would react to passage of what has become known as the Magnitsky bill, under which any Russian officials accused of involvement in the case would have any assets they hold in U.S. banks frozen.

Magnitsky has posthumously become a symbol of corruption and abuse of Russians who challenge the authorities. Adoption of the bill could undermine efforts to smooth relations at the start of President Barack Obama's new term.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed Obama's re-election and said he wants to improve ties and increase trade, but has made clear he will not tolerate criticism from the United States about human rights.

Lukashevich used tough language to condemn the state of human rights in the United States.

"Considering very crude violations of human rights in the United States itself, including the practical legalization of torture and the indefinite holding of inmates without trial in special CIA prisons and at the Gauntanamo base (in Cuba), the United States has no moral right to preach or moralize to other countries," he said.

The United States must establish "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with Russia if it wants to ensure U.S. companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization in August.

Russia joined the WTO after 18 years of negotiations with strong support from the Obama administration, whose push to bring Russia into the global trade rules body was part of the U.S. president's first-term "reset" of relations with Moscow.

Establishing PNTR requires lawmakers to lift a Cold War-era provision, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, that tied favorable U.S. tariffs on Russian goods to the rights of Soviet Jews.

LINKING TRADE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The amendment is outdated, but U.S. lawmakers are reluctant to remove it without passing legislation to keep pressure on Moscow over their human rights concerns, which have deepened since Putin returned to the presidency in May.

The U.S. House of Representatives was expected to vote on Friday on a package that would combine the PNTR bill with the Magnitsky legislation.

"Today's commentary is being made in order to show the American lawmakers that the movement should be in the exact opposite direction," Lukashevich said.

He said Russian-U.S. relations were moving in a positive direction but added: "This positive could very easily evaporate, unfortunately."

Russian officials have indicated Moscow might respond in kind by barring entry to Americans deemed to have violated human rights. Other moves cannot be ruled out.

Magnitsky was jailed in 2008 on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud, charges colleagues say were fabricated by police investigators he had accused of stealing $230 million from the state through fraudulent tax refunds. The Kremlin's own human rights council has said he was probably beaten to death.

Obama's administration says it understands concerns over rights abuses but that the bill, being pushed by lawmakers, is redundant because Washington has already imposed visa restrictions on some Russians thought to have been involved in Magnitsky's death. It has not disclosed their names.

(Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; editing by Timothy Heritage and Keiron Henderson)

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Spain suspends home evictions for most needy

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain approved measures on Thursday to help the most needy families facing eviction, a growing problem in the recession-bound nation highlighted last week by the suicide of a woman whose home bailiffs came to seize.

The government said it would suspend evictions for two years for vulnerable homeowners who can no longer pay back debt, including those with small children, the disabled and long-term unemployed.

"This is an emergency response to mitigate the effects of the worst of the economic crisis," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said at a weekly press conference.

In a country where a million homes lie empty, the legacy of a decade-long housing boom that crashed in 2008, Spain will also increase the amount of social housing available at low rents for people who have lost their homes, she said.

Spanish banks, many of which are about to receive the first funds from a 100 billion euro ($127 billion) credit line from a European bailout, have repossessed 400,000 properties since 2008, though not all of these are residential.

The trend is growing, with 50,000 repossessions in the first half of the year, compared with 77,000 for the whole of 2011.

Though most evictions following the real estate crash involved immigrants, more Spaniards are now losing their homes, experts say, as unemployment benefit runs out and family networks fray in the worst recession in half a century.

"Over the last year, more and more Spaniards have been affected rather than immigrants who have less family support," said Mauricio Valiente, a lawyer who helps evicted people.

The death last Friday of 53-year-old Amaia Egana, who jumped from her fourth-floor flat in the Basque Country as bailiffs came to turn her out of her home, grabbed headlines and pushed the issue to the top of the political agenda.

It was the second such suicide in as many months.

The eviction moratorium will only apply to families with household income of less than 19,200 euros a year.

The government is wary of creating the image that Spain is relaxing rules on the payment of mortgage debt. Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the measures would not have an effect on the Spanish mortgage market.

"The problem in Spain is not residential mortgages but loans to real estate developers," he said. Developers owe nearly 300 billion euros to banks, about 30 percent of gross domestic product.

Mortgage law in Spain is among the toughest in Europe. Homeowners remain liable for what they owe on their loan, even after returning the house to the bank, if the value of the house does not cancel out the entire mortgage debt.

In a country where home ownership is over 80 percent, residential mortgages classified as doubtful at end-June stood at 3 percent of the total, a fraction of the 27 percent classed as doubtful on loans to real estate developers, Bank of Spain data shows.

By contrast, 11 percent of residential mortgages in Ireland - also suffering the aftermath of a housing crash - were in default at end-June.

A point of concern for investors is that any change in the mortgage law could affect mortgage-backed bonds, a major source of financing for Spanish banks.

Spanish banks have 426 billion euros of these securities in circulation, according to the Spanish Mortgage Association, with a large part parked in the European Central Bank as collateral for funding.

If rules were relaxed on paying back mortgages, defaults could shoot up, weakening the loans backing these securities.

But borrowers facing eviction will already be several months, perhaps years, in arrears, and a moratorium for the most needy would not affect covered bonds, analysts said, as these loans would probably already have been written off by banks.

"What would concern investors is if a change in law reduces collateral to issue mortgage-backed bonds in the market or access the European Central Bank," said Bernd Volk, covered bond analyst at Deutsche Bank. "But I can't see this happening because of a freeze in foreclosures."

($1 = 0.7856 euros)

(Additional reporting by Aimee Donnellan in London, Paul Day in Madrid and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; editing by David Stamp and Will Waterman)

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