http://192.168.2.6/english/1117/1114.mp3

BBC World News with Charles Caro.

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned Iran that it has a strategic choice to make about its future. It can either play a constructive role in the Middle East or face international isolation. Delivering a foreign policy speech in London, Mr.Blair accused Iran of exploiting what he called the pressure points in the region, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Here's our political correspondent John David.

Mr. Blair argued that in significant part, forces outside Iraq are trying to cause mayhem inside the country and that it was therefore important to have a strategy which deals with the whole region. That could include Syria and Iran but only if the two countries change their ways. He focused his attention on Iran that he said should stop supporting terrorism in Lebanon or Iraq, should not hinder efforts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and should not flout their international obligations, a reference to Iran's nuclear program.

Tomorrow Mr. Blair is due to speak by video-link to the Iraq Study Group in Washington which was set up to provide new thinking on Iraq.

President Bush today held talks with members of the panel and later repeated his call for Iran to be isolated if it persists in refusing to halt its nuclear uranium enrichment program. Mr.Bush was speaking in Washington at a joint news conference with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Mr. Olmert also said Israel could not tolerate Iran having nuclear weapons. He described the Iranian government as fanatical and extreme and said it threatened not only the existence of Israel but of the whole world.

The Lebanese Cabinet has approved draft United Nations plans for setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of the former Prime Minister Pafik Hariri. The announcement was made by the current Prime Minister Fouad Seniora.

Today we are at a turning point. At the historical meeting of the second independent government, we have unanimously approved the draft plan for setting up an international tribunal out of rejection of and in defiance of the attempt to assassinate Lebanon and suffocate its ambition for a decent and secure life.

The announcement came hours after the resignation of another pro-Syrian minister from the Lebanese government, the sixth to quit since Saturday. Senior Syrian officials have been implicated by a UN investigation into the bombing that killed Mr.Hariri last year, but Damascus denies any involvement.

Security officials in Iraq say the police have recovered 46 bodies from the streets of Baghdad,and they said most of the bodies showed signs of torture. Correspondents say many of those killed were likely to have been the victims of sectarian attacks, while others could have been targeted by criminal gangs seeking ransoms.

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The government of Chad has declared a state of emergency in the east of the country after ethnic clashes which aid agencies say have killed 200 people since the beginning of November. The prime minister has accused the Sudanese government of exporting the conflict in Darfur to Chad in order to destabilize the country. David D. reports.

This is the second time this year that the Chadian government has invoked emergency powers because of instability in the east. And its prime minister has put Sudan firmly in the frame. He said that Arab Janjaweed militia just across the border in Darfur were encouraging Arab-Chadians to stage mounted attacks on seven border villages. Sudan has denied any involvement. France also says it's sending its own military logistical help just to the south to the Central African Republic where over the past two weeks a local rebel group has advanced from the Darfur border and taken three towns. Again Sudan denies it's involved.

South Africa says its anti-retroviral program to help the population fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the fastest growing in the world. It says that nearly a quarter of a million people who are HIV positive are receiving anti-retroviral drugs, that's up by nearly 60,000 since June. Peter B reports from Johannesburg.

This is part of a striking turnaround in the South African government's approach to the HIV/AIDS crisis. In the past the Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had stressed the importance of good nutrition including beetroot and garlic rather than anti-retroviral drugs. But more than 235,000 people are now benefiting from anti-retroviral programs, and there's also been an increase in the number of health facilities where treatment is administered.

President Bush has led a ceremony in Washington to mark the start of building work on a memorial to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in 1968. Costing 100 million dollars, the large monument will be the first to honor an African-American on the most prestigious site in Washington, the National Mall. President Bush said the civil rights leader had spread a message of hope.