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BBC world news, I'm Zui Diamond.

A Planned meeting in Jordan between President Bush and The Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri al-Maliki has been canceled without a clear explanation. The Associated Press news agency quoted Iraqi officials as saying he did not want to hold discussions with Mr. Bush in the presence of a third party. On Wednesday a political group loyal to the Iraqi Shiah cleric Moqtada al-Sadr suspended his participation in the Iraqi government and parliament in protest to the proposed talks. Reporting from Amman, John Leyne.

Even before it started, this crucial meeting has run into trouble. President Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister were due to join King Abdullah of Jordan for dinner. But at the last minute, it was announced that the Iraqi leader was not going to take part. No clear explanation was given. But the suspicion is that Nuri al-Maliki bowed to pressure from back home where he's been under attack for agreeing to see Mr. Bush at all. A breakfast meeting is still scheduled. But this embarrassment will do little for the Iraqi leader's standing in Washington. Already a leaked Whitehouse memo cast grave doubts on Mr. Maliki's ability to govern.

The United States is making a new effort to try to revive peace moves between Israel and The Palestinians. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will hold separate talks with the two sides later on Thursday, seeing the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the west bank before going on to meet the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Washington said it wanted both parties to do more to ease the region's volatile security situation.

The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says he is deeply concerned by fighting earlier this week in southern Sudan between government forces and former rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Army. A spokesman for Mr. Annan said the southern town of Malakal was now relatively calm but tension remained. As Johna Fisher reports, say, it's one of the most serious violations of a peace deal signed almost two years ago between the Arab north and the black African south.

What started as clashes between southern troops and pro-Khartoum militia has escalated. Forces from Sudan's National Army and the former southern rebels the SPLA have fought in the streets of Malakal, with gunfire reported to be heavy. With United Nations peace keepers withdrawing to their barracks, there has been no reliable word on the extent of the casualties. All non-essential UN staff and aid workers have been evacuated.

The last of three rebel groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to lay down their weapons. They'll get an amnesty and join the Congolese army. Our BBC correspondent in Eastern Congo says the deal could pave the way for a permanent peace in the Ituri district where an estimated 60,000 people have been killed since 1999 in fighting between rival militia groups trying to seize control of the region's vast mineral wealth.

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The French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he is to seek his country's presidency. Mr. Sarkozy is the strong favorite to be nominated next year by the governing party the Center Right UMP. But if he is chosen, the opinion poll suggests he faces a tough fight against Ségolène Royal, he was chosen as the socialist presidential candidate two weeks ago. Clive Miry reports from Paris.

Although the center right UMP party doesn't officially choose its candidate until early next year, Nicolas Sarkozy is by far underway the front runner. As chair of the UMP, it’s believed he has the support of 3 quarters of the 300,000 or so members. It's this backing that should see him be possible contenders from the Jacques Chirac wing of the party, people like Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin or the Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie if they decide to run.

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says there will be no concessions from his country in the dispute which has led the European Commission to recommend the partial suspension of Turkey's EU membership talks. The Commission wants the negotiations slow down because Turkey refuses to open its ports and airports to traffic from the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus, an EU member Ankara does not recognize. Mr.Erdogan, Mr.Erdogan rather, called the recommendation unacceptable.

If the EU insists on this recommended decision then the talks could be slow down, but it is not a question of suspending or stopping it. The path is the same path, it's the EU path.

British Airways says low traces of radioactive substances have been found on two of its planes, they are thought to have been tested in connection with the death in London of a former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. He was killed by apparent radiation poisoning. A third aircraft is also due to undergo tests. It's currently in Moscow.

That's the latest BBC world news.