• British Prime Minister Tony Blair called yesterday for Nato partners to provide more troops in Afghanistan and said the matter would be discussed at this week's EUsummit. "We have got to press for the additional battle group from elsewhere, we're continuing to do that," Mr Blair told parliament. "I want more to be done by other Nato countries. This will be part of the discussion informally at the European summit."

• More than a million Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala, defying insurgents who killed around 160 people in two days of attacks blamed by the government on Sunni militants. A suicide bomber killed at least 26 people in a cafe north of Baghdad in religiously mixed Diyala province, which has seen frequent sectarian violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

• The White House offered support for Vice President Dick Cheney, a powerful proponent of the Iraq war, after the conviction of his top aide dealt a fresh blow to his political reputation and raised new questions about his influence. The trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby showed MrCheney was deeply involved in an effort to discredit a critic of the administration's prewar intelligence.

• European powers urged Iran to embrace a UN idea of a timeout from nuclear activity, saying sanctions they sponsored against Tehran would be simultaneously suspended. The appeal, coupled with condemnation of Iran's effort to speed up uranium enrichment, came at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors whose keynote topic was Tehran's nuclear defiance.

• Israeli forces surrounded the Palestinian military intelligence headquarters in Ramallah, detaining some 18 militants who heeded their loudspeaker calls to surrender. Palestinian security sources said the men belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, and were also members of Palestinian security services.