World Highlights

• The White House said it did not view skepticism from Iran's supreme leader as the final word on a US offer to join direct talks with Iran if it agrees to halt sensitive nuclear activity. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on Iranian state television as saying that Iran would not benefit from discussions with the US.

• US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Pakistan to work better with Afghanistan to fight resurgent Taliban forces during a trip to the region. "We, Afghanistan and Pakistan are going to unify all our efforts, as we have done over the last several years, towards the goal of eliminating the threat of al Qaeda and the Taliban," she told a news conference after meeting President Pervez Musharraf.

•Visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon urged China to try to persuade North Korea not to test-fire a missile and discussed the stalled multilateral nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang. US officials say there is evidence North Korea may have finished fuelling a Taepodong-2 missile for a test launch, which Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have said would present a grave threat to regional security.

• Somali Islamists seized more territory near Mogadishu overnight, witnesses said, prompting accusations they had violated a ceasefire agreement. In the first attack around Mogadishu since militia loyal to sharia courts took the capital from warlords this month, five people were killed when gunmen seized three checkpoints from a warlord.