World Highlights

¤ Sudan said it would allow African troops to remain in Darfur only under African Union control and accused Washington of attempting "regime change" in Khartoum by trying to bring in a UN force. Sudan raised fears its turbulent western region could descend into full-blown war after a Foreign Ministry spokesman said AU troops monitoring a shaky ceasefire must leave when their mandate expired on September 30.

¤ Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had put his plan for an Israeli pullback from parts of the occupied West Bank on hold amid fears of rocket attacks by Arab militants on the Jewish state. "I have no doubt that something has changed in the order of priorities I had believed to be correct," Mr Olmert told Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, according to an official who regularly briefs reporters on its proceedings.

¤ The US and Iraq hope to sign an agreement by next week to hand operational command of Iraq's new army to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq said, after wrangles on wording had held up the accord. A day after the government hailed the arrest of al Qaeda in Iraq's purported deputy head as a coup against insurgents, the bodies of 33 men, some with their hands bound and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad, and foreign forces announced the death of four Americans and two British soldiers.