World Highlights

¤ International envoy James Wolfensohn is expected to tell major powers that the Palestinian Authority will be unable to pay nearly all of this month's salaries unless alternative funding is found, diplomats said.

The Quartet of major peace mediators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - asked Mr Wolfensohn to report back to them on the caretaker Palestinian government's immediate needs and to identify sources of funding to keep it running at least temporarily.

¤ Russia and China stepped up their efforts to persuade Iran to accept a compromise proposal over its nuclear programme that may avert the threat of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Lu Guozeng arrived in Tehran for three days of talks to try to find a way to ease Western suspicions that Iran wants to make nuclear bombs.

¤ Serbia is doing everything in its power to bring war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to justice, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said, as the European Union put more pressure on Belgrade to meet its demands.

Serbia does not however expect to hand Mladic over to the UN court in The Hague in the next few days despite persistent speculation that one of the Balkans' top war crimes suspects is about to be arrested.

¤ Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took a commanding lead over his rival Kizza Besigye in early results from an election he hopes will extend his two-decade rule.

Results from nearly a third of the east African nation's polling stations gave Museveni 65.5 per cent. Besigye, leader of the Forum for Democratic Change, was on less than half that at 31.9 per cent, the Electoral Commission said.

¤ The White House welcomed the delay of a contested deal for a state-owned Arab company to operate terminals at six US ports, but said it should still proceed because national security was not at risk.

US President George W. Bush is under political pressure to cancel the deal, which has generated a firestorm on Capitol Hill and among other critics who fear the Dubai-based port operator could be a Trojan horse for militants wanting to attack the United States.

¤ Hopes of finding survivors from a Mexican coal mine accident dimmed after authorities said they had evidence that indicated half of the 65 missing miners probably were dead.

Mine owner Grupo Mexico told Reuters that tests in a section of the mine where nine men were thought to be working at the time of Sunday's methane gas explosion showed there was not enough oxygen to sustain life.