http://192.168.2.6/english/20061218VOA.mp3

Fighting between rival Palestinian factions has been spreading throughout the Gaza Strip following a call for new elections by the Palestinian president. Gunmen from the Hamas group that controls the government and the Fatah faction of President Mohoud Abbas have been fighting street battles near the President's compound in Gaza city. Earlier a convoy carrying the Palestinian Foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas came under fire in Gaza .Nobody was injured. The incident took place hours after a member of the Palestinian presidential guard loyal to Mr Abbas were shot dead at a training base by suspected Hamas gunmen. Hamas denys it was involved in the attack.

Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms have carried out a mass kidnapping at the Iraqi Red Crescent office in Baghdad. At least 24 people were taken hostage from the humanitarian agency's office. The attack took place as British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad. During a news conference on Sunday with his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki. Mr Blair pleged continued British support.

"Our task, ours, the Americans, the whole of the coalition, the international community and the Iraqis themselves is to make sure that the forces of terrorism don't defeat the will of the people to have democracy.”

Baghdad is Mr Blair's third stop in his Middle East tour which has taken him to Turkey and Egypt.

A top US envoy on North Korea's nuclear program is urging the country to get serious about ending the country's nuclear weapon's program.Christopher Hill is in Beijing for the latest round of six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program. The formal talks are scheduled to begin on Monday. "We can either go forward on a diplomatic track or we have to go to a much more difficult track, and that is a track that involves sanctions. And I think ultimately it will really be very harmful to the DPRK economy." The US diplomat briefly met his North Korean counterpart on Sunday at a dinner in Beijing but said there were no substantive discussions. Hill says Washington's main goal for the talks is to secure the implementation of September 2005 agreement in which North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for aid and security guarantees.

France has announced it will withdraw about 200 members of its military special forces from Afghanistan in the next few weeks. The French defense minister said troops will leave their post in eastern Afghanistan where they have been involved in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces and the search for Osama Bin Laden. Earlier on Sunday NATO officials said a suicide bomber drove up to an American convoy in eastern Afghanistan and detonated the vehicle killing one Afghan civilian and wounding two others.

Ivory Coast's Prime Minister is downplaying his differences with President Laurent Gbagbo and promises to resume the process of disarmament of fighters and national identification of undocumented Northerners in preparation for general elections. VOA's Nicole Colubums reports from Dakar. Speaking to several media including VOA, Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny acknowledges there have been what he calls hesitations between him and president Gbagbo. In a high profile tug of war with the Prime Minister. Mr Gbagbo recently reinstated three senior civil servants who had been suspended by Mr Banny.The three senior officials were suspended for their role in the toxic waste scandal in which tons of chemicals were unloaded in Abidjan killing ten people and sending thousands to hospitals. The president also made unilateral changes in top media positions-- define one of the Prime Minister's other roles in the government as communications minister. Mr Banny did not address these acts directly but expressed concerns that Mr Gbagbo was moving away from the UN road map for peace which calls for power sharing between the Prime Minister and President. He said consensus was needed both national and international. NC VOA 's news Dakar.

Nigeria's ruling party has chosen K state governor NU to be its presidential candidate in next year's elections. An official of the ruling people's democratic party announced Sunday that the 55-year-old Muslim from the Nigeria's north won the support of more than 3,000 of the 4,000 party delegates. Nigeria's president Olusegun Obasanjo is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term in the national votes set for April 2007.