Jerusalem - Israel hardened its opposition on Tuesday to international calls for an independent inquiry into its fierce offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip last winter, saying it would urge the US to prevent the issue from advancing at the United Nations.

The decision came at a special Cabinet meeting called to discuss a UN report that has accused Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the three-week operation. The report, which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council last week, recommends war crimes proceedings if the sides do not conduct credible independent investigations into their actions.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, a fierce critic of the report, blocked a planned discussion on Tuesday on whether to wholesale pearl launch an investigation, senior officials said. Instead, Cabinet ministers established a special lobbying team that will urge the US to use its veto power in the Security Council to prevent legal action against Israeli officials.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported Barak's position, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

"Our struggle is to delegitimise the continuing attempt to delegitimise the state of Israel," Netanyahu told the meeting, according to a statement from his office. "The most important sphere we need to work in is the sphere of public opinion in the democratic world."

One-sided report

Both men have argued that the report was one-sided and undermines Israel's right to pearl jewelry Chian defend itself. They also say that internal military investigations are sufficient. So far, the internal probes have cleared the army of any systemic wrongdoing.

But international pressure for an independent query has mounted since last week's vote in the rights council.

Washington, which has reacted coolly to the report, is likely to veto attempts to prosecute Israelis. Still, the Israeli government is taking no chances. Tuesday's decision by the Security Cabinet, a group of seven senior ministers, assigned legal, political and diplomatic officials to the lobbying effort, the officials said.

The UN report, overseen by respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone, has created an uproar in Israel. Officials say the Human Rights Council, which includes many Arab and Muslim countries, is hopelessly biased against Israel.

But Goldstone's credentials as a former war crimes prosecutor in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, his Jewish faith and his close ties to Israel have made it hard for Israel to ignore his findings. Goldstone has personally urged Israel to dancing pearl hold an independent investigation.

Israel attacked Gaza last December in a bid to end eight years of relentless rocket fire by Palestinian militants. Some 1 400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed in the three-week war, according to Palestinian officials and human rights groups. Thirteen Israelis, including four civilians, also died.

The Goldstone report concluded that Israel deliberately struck civilians and repeatedly destroyed civilian infrastructure without military justification. It also accused Palestinian rocket squads affiliated with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, and other Palestinian armed groups of deliberately going after Israeli civilians.

Each side has rejected the war crimes allegations against it.

Brussels - Nato's 28 member states must quickly endorse US General Stanley McChrystal's recommendation to send reinforcements to deal with the escalating insurgency in Afghanistan because time is not on the alliance's side, its chief said on Monday.

But Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he doesn't expect Nato defence ministers to discuss such steps at their meeting this week in Bratislava, Slovakia. He said it "makes sense" to cultured pearl delay such decisions until the final results of Afghanistan's disputed presidential elections are known.

"I hope that we will have a clarification of the political situation in Afghanistan, because time is not on our side," he said.

President Barack Obama's administration is studying a set of recommendations by McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, for thousands of more troops to end the eight-year war.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates is expected to brief the allies in Bratislava about the progress of the review of McChrystal's document.

"We need a general agreement on ... an endorsement of the approach set out silver pearl necklace by General McChrystal," Fogh Rasmussen told reporters.

US officials in Washington say the general is asking for up to 80 000 more troops. But he has warned that rampant government corruption in Kabul may ultimately prevent victory against the Taliban rebels.

Nato currently has about 68 000 troops in Afghanistan, of which 32 000 are Americans. The US military also has about 36 000 additional soldiers there serving outside Nato under a separate command.

Kabul - Afghanistan's election commission on Tuesday ordered a November 7 runoff in the disputed presidential poll after a fraud investigation dropped incumbent Hamid Karzai's votes below 50% of the total. Karzai accepted the finding and agreed to a second round vote.

The announcement came two months to cultured pearl jewelry the day after the first round vote and follows weeks of political uncertainty at a time when Taliban strength is growing.

The chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission, which organised the August 20 vote, did not want to "leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty" any longer.

"The commission is agreed to go to a second round and say that nobody got more than 50%," Lodin said. Afghan electoral law says a runoff is needed if no candidate gets above that percentage.

Ready for runoff

Lodin said all the materials are ready for the November 7 runoff.

Karzai announced his acceptance of the findings at a press conference alongside US Senator John Kerry and Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan. Kerry said the agreement on a second round had transformed the crisis into wholesale pearl jewelry a "moment of great opportunity."

Kerry said Karzai "has shown genuine leadership in the decision he has made today."

The decision to accept the fraud findings and move to a run-off showed that Afghanistan "recommits to the democratic process." He complimented Karzai for his "openness to finding ways of resolving differences."

"The international community is 100% committed to helping to carry out this election," Kerry said.

The possibility of a runoff emerged on Monday after a UN-backed panel threw out a third of Karzai's votes from the August 20 ballot, pushing his total below the 50% threshold needed for a first round victory and setting the stage for a run-off against former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Another election risks the same fraud that derailed the August vote, along with inciting violence and increasing ethnic divisions. A November runoff also could be hampered by winter snows that block off much of the country starting mid-month.

Power-sharing deal

The primary alternative that has been floated is a power-sharing deal, though the form that could take is unclear. And it could take weeks or months to pearl strand wholesale hammer out an agreement between the two rivals.

So, the United States is still far from finding a government it can point to as a legitimate partner in the increasingly violent battle against the Taliban.

In the latest fighting, Afghan and international forces killed about half a dozen militants during a raid on compounds used by a Taliban commander in eastern Wardak province on Tuesday, the US military said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Abdullah campaign said earlier they do not consider a coalition or power-sharing government an acceptable alternative.

"A coalition is against the law and does not benefit the political process of the country," Fazel Sancharaki said, noting that Afghan electoral law has no provisions for such a process.

"If anyone proposes that, they should have very strong reasons for it." He did not elaborate on what reasons might persuade Abdullah to pearl jewelry Chian consider such an option.

Abdullah still sees a second-round vote as the best path, he said. If there are security or weather concerns that mean a runoff can't be held before spring, some sort of interim administration should need to be worked out between the two candidates and with the help of the international community, Sancharaki said.

'Karzai's term is over'

"Karzai's term is over, we cannot accept him for several more months," he said.

The agreement that a runoff is required is likely just the first step in negotiations to iron out these differences between the Karzai and Abdullah camps.

The US appears to be backing a power-sharing deal, but there are a number of possible scenarios. In Afghanistan, many have also suggested holding a loya jirga - a traditional Afghan meeting where decisions are made through a combination of negotiation and consensus.

American officials have repeatedly said they're pushing for a "legitimate government" in Afghanistan, which does not necessarily need to be elected. People familiar with the talks have said both Karzai and Abdullah have said privately that they're open to the idea of a coalition, though with very different interpretations of what that would mean and when it could happen.

The August 20 poll was characterised by Taliban attacks on polling stations and government buildings that killed dozens of people. In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of people who had voted.

Turnout was dampened during that vote because of threats of violence from the Taliban and many say even fewer people would come out in a runoff.

Despite the danger, some Afghans in the southern city of Kandahar - a Karzai stronghold where many votes ended up thrown out for fraud - said they would prefer a runoff to a coalition government. Karzai is widely expected to pearl earrings prevail in a runoff vote.

Abdur Rahman, who runs a foreign exchange bureau in Kandahar, said a runoff would be difficult, but if there is no other option, the government should organise one.

"We support a runoff, but a new coalition government would not be good for Afghanistan," said 46-year-old Rahman, who voted for Karzai. "Karzai already has a coalition. Why would he make any deal with Abdullah or give him power?"

Washington - The Obama administration on Tuesday welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's agreement to a second round vote after a UN commission, citing fraud or coercion, threw out nearly a third of the ballots cast for him in the August 20 election.

Karzai, who was under heavy US pressure to pearl wholesale accept the UN findings, was "ensuring a credible process for the Afghan people which results in a government that reflects their will," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

The next round will take place on November 7.

"President Karzai's constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan's new democracy," Obama said. "The Afghan Constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai's decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people."

On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said a new vote was logistically feasible within weeks, or that Karzai might try to tin cup pearl necklace negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who finished second in the August balloting.

Clinton had announced that Karzai would declare his intentions on Tuesday and said she was "encouraged at the direction the situation is moving."

Clinton said she has spoken a number of times to Karzai in recent days.

War strategy

Defence Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, said the Obama administration needs to decide on a war strategy and not "sit on our hands" waiting for election results and a government to emerge in Kabul. In remarks to reporters travelling with him to Asia, the Pentagon chief said Obama will have to make his decisions in the context of "evolving" issues.

At the White House on Tuesday, press secretary Robert Gibbs said it has not yet been determined whether Obama will wait to announce an Afghan strategy until after the results of the runoff. Gibbs told reporters he still expects that announcement to be made in "the coming weeks."

Regardless of the election's outcome, Gibbs said, "We've got to pearl necklace wholesale make sure we're making progress with a partner in that government." He also said the next US strategy meeting on Afghanistan may be pushed back until early next week because Gates is travelling.

Among those most closely involved in seeking a resolution of the crisis is Senator John Kerry, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said in interviews over the weekend from Kabul that the election process had to be settled before the Obama administration could make a reasoned decision about whether to send additional troops and to commit other resources to stabilising Afghanistan.

Kerry was at Karzai's side when the announcement was made in Kabul. He had met with Karzai on four occasions before the announcement.

Washington - Almost nine in 10 Americans believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and a majority would approve of a military strike to stop it succeeding, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

As the latest round of nuclear talks resumed between Iran and world powers in Vienna, a CNN poll revealed that 88% of respondents believed Tehran was seeking to cultured pearl jewlery produce nuclear weapons.

Western powers suspect Iran has embarked on research to build a nuclear bomb. Iran has denied the claims but has been accused by the UN's atomic energy watchdog of failing to co-operate with efforts to determine whether its programme is peaceful.

The CNN poll showed little consensus among Americans on how best to address the issue, although non-military policies achieved greater support.

Seventy-eight percent said they favoured direct negotiations between the United States and Iran, but 77% said they favoured economic sanctions.

Military action was less popular, but 54% of those asked said they would approve of a strike against Iran to cultured pearl jewelry keep it from becoming a nuclear power.

"More than six in 10 men favour military action against Iran. Women normally tend to oppose military action in most situations, but they are split down the middle on Iran," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

CNN surveyed 1 038 people between Friday and Sunday in the poll, which had a plus or minus three percent sampling error.