Mubarak deputy decides to run for Egypt president

CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's former vice president appointed by Hosni Mubarak has changed his mind and says he will run in the upcoming presidential elections.

Omar Suleiman issued a statement on Friday saying he reversed an earlier decision to stay out of the race after his supporters pleaded with him. The state MENA news agency carried the statement.

Suleiman's next step is to get the endorsement of 30,000 supporters before officially submitting his application to run.

Mubarak appointed Suleiman, then Egypt's intelligence chief and a key ally of the now ousted president, during last year's uprising.

He is distrusted by some as a symbol of the old regime but has found support among some liberals and moderates who fear the Islamists' rising power.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CAIRO (AP) - Thousands rallied in Cairo on Friday in support of an ultraconservative Islamist presidential hopeful who may be disqualified from the race after it was announced that his mother was an American citizen.

The protesters carried photos and campaign posters of Hazem Abu Ismail, a 50-year-old lawyer-turned-preacher who in recent months vaulted to become one of the strongest contenders for president, with widespread backing from ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis.

The showdown between Abu Ismail's supporters and the government has shaken-up a race that includes former regime officials and Islamists competing against one another in the first presidential election since last year's ouster or Hosni Mubarak. The balloting is slated for the end of May.

Abu Ismail's face- smiling, with a long, conservative beard - has become ubiquitous in Cairo and other cities because of a startlingly aggressive postering campaign that plastered walls and lampposts with his picture.

Egypt's election commission, which announced Thursday that Abu Ismail's mother was a U.S. citizen, did not outright disqualify him because it has yet to start vetting would-be candidates' applications. A law put in place after Mubarak's fall stipulates that a candidate may not have any other citizenship than Egyptian - and that the candidate's spouse and parents cannot have other citizenships as well.

As his disqualification looked increasingly likely, Abu Ismail said Thursday he faces an "elaborate plot" against him and insisted his mother only had a Green Card to visit her daughter, who is married to an American and lives in the United States.

The announcement about his mother is particularly embarrassing for Abu Ismail, who has used anti-U.S. rhetoric in his campaign speeches and says he rejects "dependency" on America.

His campaign team claims the country's military rulers, who took over after Mubarak's ouster, are looking for ways to disqualify him as a candidate. As his supporters began marching after Friday prayers down a main Cairo street toward the central Tahrir Square, his campaign chief, Gamal Saber, said the ruling military council is "lying about the sheik."

"We have proof that his mother is not American," Saber said, adding that their supporters are prepared "to die in Tahrir Square" to fight the "fraud".

A follower of the ultra-conservative Salafi trend of Islam, Abu Ismail has been among the front-runners in the race. If he is disqualified, it opens the door for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater to win a greater number of Islamist votes. Another Islamist in the race is Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a reform minded physician who was expelled from the Brotherhood last year and is trying to appeal both to religious and more secular-minded Egyptians.

An election win by an Islamist candidate would mirror Egypt's recent parliamentary elections, where the Brotherhood won nearly half of the seats in parliament and the Salafi Al-Nour party came in second, with a quarter of the seats.

Abu Ismail's supporters say he will cleanse the country of corrupt officials by enforcing a strict application of Islamic law.

A preacher speaking to the crowd at Tahrir Square on Friday said the attacks against Abu Ismail amounted to attacks against God's rule. "It is a case of war against the religion, against Islamic law," said the preacher, who was not identified.

Gamaa Islamiya, a former militant group that is now part of the ultraconservative Salafi Al-Nour bloc, helped organize buses that brought thousands from around the country to Friday's rally.

Physician Khaled el-Said, a member of Gamaa Islamiya, said he traveled from the Nile delta city of Mansoura for the rally in Cairo.

"I'm here to support Sheik Hazem against the games being played, "he said.

The only disturbance in the area Friday occurred when Abu Ismail supporters, chanting "The Quran is our constitution," forced a few dozen people off a separate stage in Tahrir Square. The other protesters were denouncing the Islamists' domination of a panel meant to draft Egypt's new constitution and demanding that a more diverse body be selected for the task.

Rallies in support of Abu Ismail also took place Friday in several other Egyptian provinces.

Even liberal presidential hopeful, Ayman Nour, spoke out in his defense on Friday. Nour served four years in prison under Mubarak in a case he says was politically motivated when he ran against the former leader in the 2005 elections. On Friday, Nour and a lesser known hopeful, Hamdeen Sabahi, submitted their applications for the presidential race.

"We believe what is happening to Sheik Abu Ismail is disgraceful. We hope that the elections are free, beginning with freedom for anyone to qualify," Nour said.

Seif al-Islam Qaddafi ‘attacked’ in Libya detention: ICC lawyer

Seif al-Islam, the son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, has been attacked in detention in Libya, a lawyer from the International Criminal Court said on Thursday.

“Qaddafi has been physically attacked,” ICC defense official Xavier-Jean Keita said in a statement accusing Libyan authorities of depriving the country’s onetime favorite son of his fundamental rights.

“He also suffers pain due to the absence of dental treatment,” the lawyer said in a statement.

Seif al-Islam is wanted on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in trying to put down the uprising to unseat his father in Libya last year.

Keita, who is from the ICC’s Office of Public Counsel for the Defense (OPCD) and is acting as Seif’s primary counsel, did not say when the attack took place or give any further details.

Keita said Seif’s “effective representation cannot be secured in a setting in which the OPCD has no ability to conduct privileged communications with Qaddafi on an ongoing basis, or to transmit privileged documents to him.

“Qaddafi has been interviewed by domestic authorities without the benefit of legal representation, and has been provided misleading information concerning the status of domestic investigations against him,” the statement said.

Also Thursday, the global police agency Interpol issued alerts seeking the arrest of two senior officials in Muammar Qaddafi’s ousted regime on suspicion of torture and kidnapping.

A statement from the France-based body said Libya had requested assistance in detaining two officials identified as former interior minister Al-Senussi Alozyre, 63, and his former deputy Naser al-Mabruk, 60.

They are “accused of a range of offences including carrying out illegal arrests, unjustified deprivation of personal liberty and torture.”

Several other Libyan officials are subject to Interpol “Red Notice” arrest requests, including the dictator’s surviving sons and his former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, who is being held in Mauritania.

“They are wanted for crimes against humanity and they have escaped Libya,” a senior interior ministry official told AFP in Tripoli, adding that their whereabouts remain unknown.

Alozyre, who was the last interior minister under Qaddafi’s ousted regime, oversaw the dictator’s internal security agencies in the east of the country. He is accused of taking part in the former regime’s crackdown on Islamists during the 1980s and 1990s.

Former rebels briefly detained him after the start of the revolution in February last year but tribal reportedly leaders obtained his liberation.

He fled to Egypt and then Tunis before returning to Tripoli and assuming his post as Qaddafi’s final interior minister in March 2011.

Alozyre reportedly fled after the fall of Tripoli in August. Mabruk, who served in the interior ministry, also reportedly escaped after former rebels took over the capital.

U.S. ties might bar Salafist candidate from running to Egyptian presidency

Salafist sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail could be barred from pursuing his bid for Egypt’s presidency because his mother held a U.S. passport, the electoral commission said on Thursday.

Under the electoral law, all candidates for the presidency, their parents and their spouses must have only Egyptian citizenship.

But the electoral commission denied on Thursday that the mother of Abu Ismail held a U.S. passport after the foreign ministry had earlier said she had.

Electoral commission chief Hatem Begato said the agency had received information according to which Ismail’s mother had “used an American passport for travel to and from Egypt” before her death.

A statement given to journalists said “Nawal Abdel Aziz Nur, the mother of presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, held a U.S. passport with the number 500611598.”

Citing the interior ministry’s passport department, it said she had used the document for travel to the United States and Germany, as well as within Egypt.

Abu Ismail had earlier denied reports that his mother was an American passport holder and attributed the allegations to a conspiracy aimed at getting him out of the way. According to him, the main reason for this conspiracy is the nomination of the Muslim Brotherhood second-in-command Khairat al-Shater to run for presidency.

The commission said files would be examined on April 12 and 13 and that any candidate not fulfilling the requirements would be informed. Those rejected would then have 48 hours to appeal.

The final list of candidates will be announced on April 26, the statement said.

Abu Ismail’s supporters have said they will demonstrate in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday to protest against the possible invalidation of his candidacy.

Abu Ismail launched his candidacy on March 30 with a large motorcade that headed to the electoral commission headquarters in Cairo.

He advocates a strict interpretation of Islam and has become a familiar sight in Cairo, with his posters adorning many cars and micro buses.

The May election will mark the beginning of a handover of power by the ruling military to an elected civilian leader, following last year’s popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.

Abu Ismail will compete with more moderate Islamist candidates, such as senior Muslim Brotherhood figure Khairat al-Shater, as well as former regime figures such as Amr Mussa, an ex-foreign minister who headed the Arab League, and former premier, Ahmed Shafiq.

Islamists have made big strides since Mubarak’s ouster, winning majorities in elections to both houses of parliament.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party won the biggest number of seats in parliamentary elections earlier this year, but the Salafists won nearly a quarter themselves.

Iran promotes ally to replace aging spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiites

Iran is promoting a conservative cleric close to its supreme leader as a possible successor for the aging spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiites, a move that would give Tehran a powerful platform to influence its neighbor, according to figures close to Iraq’s religious leadership.

The 81-year-old spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is one of the most influential figures in Iraq, revered by its Shiite majority as well as by Shiites around the world. In the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein, he was strong enough to shape the new Iraq, forcing American leaders and Iraqi politicians to revise parts of their transition plans he objected to.

The man Iran is maneuvering in hopes of eventually replacing him is Grand Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a prominent insider in the clerical hierarchy that rules Iran. He was the head of Iran’s judiciary for 10 years until 2009, playing a major role in suppressing the country’s reform movement, and sits on one of Iran’s main ruling councils.

Shahroudi has started to build a presence in Najaf, the Iraqi holy city of dozens of seminaries that is the center of Shiism’s religious leadership, to which many of the world’s 200 million Shiites turn for spiritual and political guidance. Posters bearing his portrait have sprung up in the Baghdad district of Sadr City, a bastion of Shiite activism and home to some 2.5 million Shiites.

Iran’s growing influence in Iraq - through the economy and ties with Shiite politicians in Baghdad - is already a source of alarm to the United States and its Gulf Arab allies who see Shiite-majority Iran as a rival.

It would boost Tehran’s voice in Iraq even more if Shahroudi ever succeeds al-Sistani as “al-marjaa al-akbar,” or “the greatest object of emulation.”

The 63-year-old Shahroudi would likely take an even more assertive political role than al-Sistani has. Al-Sistani adheres to a “quietist” school of Shiism that rejects formal rule by clerics, in contrast to Iran’s school in which clerics hold ultimate power.

Also, al-Sistani has lived in seclusion for years - he is thought not to have left his Najaf house since 2004 - and some feel he has grown out of sync with Iraq’s new generation of young and empowered Shiites. Disillusioned over unemployment and erratic services, many young Shiites are looking for a more dynamic religious leadership to counter what they see as the rising power of Sunni fundamentalists in the Arab world.

“Iraq’s Shiites are deeply politicized and they have had enough of traditional marjaiyah (religious authorities) like al-Sistani’s,” said one insider in Najaf, who is in daily contact with the city’s top clerics. “Iran is taking advantage of this by working energetically to replace him with one of its own.”

The insider is one of six who are well connected to the Shiites’ secretive religious establishment in Najaf and in Baghdad. They said Shahroudi appears to be angling for the post. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Al-Sistani, who was treated in London for heart problems in 2004, remains healthy and alert, according to visitors who saw him recently. But his advanced age has fueled speculation about his succession in Najaf.

But the succession does not necessarily have to wait until al-Sistani’s death. It could effectively take place if al-Sistani is deemed too old to guide his followers.

The position of al-marjaa al-akbar is considered the highest in Shia Islam’s spiritual hierarchy, more elevated than the several dozen clerics with “marjaa” - or “object of emulation” - status in the Shiite world. Pious Shiites generally choose a marjaa to follow. Al-Sistani has been al-marjaa al-akbar since the 1990s.

Filling the post is done by an informal process of consensus among senior and middle-ranking clerics, aimed at choosing the learned and respected figure. “Campaigning” for it means showing religious clout among Shiites in general and in Najaf specifically.

Ibrahim al-Baghdadi, Shahroudi’s top aide in Najaf, would not say if Shahroudi has ambitions for the position. Morteza Monajjem, a spokesman for Shahroudi’s office in the holy city of Qom, Iran’s religious capital, said the cleric “has no plan to stand next to other marjaas” and “has not officially defined himself as a marjaa.”

Still, Shahroudi is laying the necessary groundwork.

He opened a representative office in Najaf in October and plans to visit the city soon, according to al-Baghdadi.

He has begun paying monthly stipends to poor seminary students, organizing “study circles” and collecting the “khoms” from followers - a tithe of a fifth of one’s income. He has sent cleric-deputies to Shiite provinces in Iraq, al-Baghdadi said. He has also increased his issuing of fatwas, or religious edicts, in response to questions sent to his website.

Any ayatollah with aspirations of becoming a marjaa must write a religious textbook known as a “Tawdih al-Masail,” or “Clarification of Issues,” laying out rules for daily religious practice. Shahroudi published his just over a year ago.

Shahroudi is already known to be the spiritual leader of powerful Iraqi factions, including followers of the Badr Organization as well as most members of the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah Brigades militia active in southern Iraq, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a hardline faction.

Among his students in Qom were Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, and Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Iraqi politician.

Shahroudi is also believed to have replaced a grand ayatollah who died in 2010 as the spiritual mentor of the Dawa Party, Iraq’s oldest and most powerful Shiite political group. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Dawa leader, visited Shahroudi during a recent visit to Iran.

Shahroudi was born in Najaf to Iranian parents in a family of clerics that claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad. He studied under Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, a prominent scholar credited with modernizing Shiite doctrine before he was executed by Saddam in 1980. Shahroudi fled a 1979 crackdown against Shiites and took refuge in Iran.

There, he became the first leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a major opposition group of Iraqi Shiite exiles. The group became a major political player in post-Saddam Iraq and its successor party is in al-Maliki’s ruling coalition.

Shahroudi also rose in Iran’s clerical leadership. He is so close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he has been cited by many observers as his possible successor.

Still, the Najaf insiders caution there are challenges in his path to succeed al-Sistani.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the young anti-American cleric whose followers have 40 of parliament’s 325 seats, has been in Iran studying to become a marjaa. But he is believed to need several more years before he can reach the rank of ayatollah, a status below marjaa, according to one of his aides in Iraq.

One of Shahroudi’s former students in Qom - now an Iraqi politician - said Shahroudi is strongly positioned.

“He is relatively young, he is familiar with modern day issues and has impeccable family pedigree,” he said. “The Shiite street wants a dynamic marjaa who can compensate it for the failure of the government.”

Syria tells U.N. ‘terror’ attacks on rise as refugees brave mines to reach Turkey

Syria has sent a message to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the Security Council telling them that “terrorist acts” are on the rise, the official SANA news agency reported Friday as Syrian forces are laying mines near the border with Turkey to block a flow of refugees and supplies for insurgents.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday formally approved an Apr. 10 deadline for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to cease military operations and for opposition rebels to do the same over the following 48 hours.

And Damascus has demanded a written commitment that the opposition will not seek to exploit the withdrawal to make territorial gains.

“The terrorist acts committed by the armed terrorist groups in Syria have increased during the last few days, particularly after reaching an understanding on Kofi Annan’s plan,” said the letter, according to AFP.

The U.N. and Arab League envoy has proposed a six-point peace plan for Syria that the Damascus government has agreed to.

Damascus has agreed to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from cities by next Tuesday. Annan said that if this is carried out he would call for a complete halt to hostilities by “0600 hours Damascus time on Thursday April 12.”

Syria’s message accused the country’s opposition “which recently held meetings in Turkey of pursuing its main objective, which is... the spilling of Syrian blood, in announcing the creation of funds to finance and arm (terrorist) groups.”

It also said the number of soldiers and security agents killed since mid-March last year had risen to 2,088, and added that more than 478 police offers had also died.

Damascus attributes the violence that erupted last year to “armed terrorist groups.”

Earlier on Friday, Syria lashed out at the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, accusing her of turning a blind eye to “terrorism” funded from abroad.

Citing a foreign ministry letter to Navi Pillay, SANA said her “bias against Syria has become evident as she turns a blind eye to terrorism targeting the Syrian people at the hands of armed groups with an external funding.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that more than 10,100 people -- among them 7,300 civilians -- have been killed in the deadly crackdown on dissent.

The United Nations puts the toll at more than 9,000.

Mines and machineguns

Meanwhile, Syrian forces are laying mines near the border with Turkey in an attempt to block a flow of refugees and supplies for insurgents, rebel activists and a Turkish official at the frontier said on Friday.

The flow of refugees to Turkish camps nearby swelled to 2,800 on Thursday as violence in the bordering Idlib province worsened.

It was impossible to verify reports from the many refugees fleeing Syria since foreign correspondents’ access to the country is strictly limited by the Damascus government.

A Syrian helicopter could be seen hovering over mountains on the Syrian side of the border in clear view of refugees at a camp. A Reuters television journalist with experience in the area said it was the first time since the crisis began that he was aware of Syrian aircraft flying close to Turkey.

Villagers reported hearing artillery along the border.

A Turkish foreign ministry official touring the camps in the area said there was new activity close to the border.

“The Syrians have been mining the border, especially the southern Idlib part which has been restricting the flow of refugees,” the official said. He declined to give his name.

Activists said mining was concentrated on southerly parts of Turkey’s border with Syria, from the town of Harem westwards to the coast.

Still, refugees were getting through.

Flow of refugees

In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded Assad keep his promise to cease military operations.

“At the moment the number of refugees to have entered Turkey is 23,835. If more refugees come then the United Nations and international community must take action,” he told reporters.

The flow of refugees has been a big concern for Turkey which long saw Damascus as a regional friend but is now in the forefront of diplomatic opposition to Assad and gives refuge to civilian and military forces ranged against him.

Turkey fears that a complete breakdown in Syria would unleash a flood of refugees reminiscent of the half million who descended on Turkish territory from Iraq during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.

Ankara officials have cited such a development as one of the few that might make it consider establishment of a safe zone on the Syrian side. The presence now of Syrian troops so close to the border would make such a move perilous.

An opposition activist said the refugee flow into Turkey varied greatly from day to day because government troops would find open areas and shut them down. Refugees would then probe for new crossings and then pour across until they were blocked.
One particularly dangerous crossing is the Orontes River, which marks the border and is famous for its strong currents. Syrian army tents could be seen pitched amid lush farmland on the other side.

Syrian opposition activists said four refugees were shot dead trying to cross the river this week and a 16-year-old boy drowned. The activists said the Syrian army fired at and sank barrels used as makeshift boats pulled by ropes.

Iraq's Kurds halt oil exports over payment row

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region has halted oil exports over a payment row with the central government in Baghdad, causing further deterioration in relations between the two administrations.

The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq has unilaterally struck scores of deals with oil companies in recent years, even though Baghdad says it has no right to do so. The two sides struck a tentative deal in 2011 by which the Kurds send the oil to Baghdad, which sells it, and each side then takes 50 percent of the revenues.

In a statement issued late Sunday, the region's Ministry of Natural Resources said Baghdad failed to send any money since May, even though it had been exporting 50,000 barrels per day. They said only two payments of $514 million have been made with the last made in May 2011.

"After consultation with the producing companies, the Ministry has reluctantly decided to halt exports until further notice," the statement said. "There have been no payments for 10 months, nor any indication from federal authorities that payments are forthcoming."

It added that oil exports will be resumed once payment issue is resolved, adding that the production will be diverted to the local market for processing and refining to generate an alternate source of cash flow for the producing companies.

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the Kurds' decision to halt oil exports will affect the federal budget for 2012. He also accused Kurdish authorities of smuggling huge amounts of oil to neighbouring countries, mainly Iran, or selling it on the local market.

The Kurds, he charged, were withholding about $5.65 billion in revenues generated from unreported oil sales since 2010.

"Where the money went, I don't know," he said.

Last week, Iraq's Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi said Baghdad already approved payment of $560 million to oil producers in the Kurdish region but it was awaiting final audits.

The Kurds are at odds with the Baghdad government on a host of issues, ranging from the development of oil resources in the autonomous Kurdish region to the status of disputed areas, including the oil hub of Kirkuk.

Tensions between the two have increased since last November when the Kurds announced that U.S. giant Exxon Mobil signed a deal to explore for oil in the region. Baghdad warned Exxon could risk existing agreements with Baghdad.

Another point of contention is Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. Al-Hashemi, the highest ranking Sunni Arab official in Iraq, is wanted by the Shiite-led government who claim he ran death squads and fled into exile in the Kurdish region.

Iraq's Interior Ministry last month demanded that Kurdish leaders arrest al-Hashemi before he could flee the country, but the vice president traveled to Qatar Sunday on what he said was an official visit to several countries.

The Kurdish move came as the Iraqi Oil Ministry reported the highest oil exports in March since 1989, thanks to a new offshore export terminal in the Gulf.

Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Monday that March oil exports averaged 2.317 million barrels a day that generated $8,475 billion.

February's oil exports averaged 2.0137 million barrels per day, down from an average of 2.107 million barrels per day in January. February's sales grossed $6.595 billion.

Although Iraq sits atop the world's fourth largest proven reserves of conventional crude, about 143.1 billion barrels, decades of sanctions, war, sabotage and neglect have battered the sector.

Since 2008, Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals to international energy companies, the first major investments in the country's energy industry in more than three decades.

Baghdad aims to raise daily output to 12 million barrels by 2017, a level that would put it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia's current production capacity. Many analysts say that target is unrealistic, because of the degraded state of the industry's infrastructure after wars and an international embargo that lasted more than a decade.

Clashes across Syria ahead of Annan's UN briefing

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian government troops clashed with rebel forces across the country Monday as international envoy Kofi Annan prepared to brief the U.N. Security Council on the progress of his mission to ease the nation's crisis.

A new flurry of high-level diplomacy has failed to stop the violence in a year-old conflict that the U.N. says has killed more than 9,000 people.

On Monday, more than 70 countries, including the United States, pledged to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to opposition groups inside Syria, signaling a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone will not end the repression and push Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.

Participants at an international diplomatic conference in Istanbul on Sunday said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a fund to pay Syrian rebels fighters known as the Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime. One delegate described the fund as a "pot of gold" to undermine Assad's army.

Participants confirmed the Gulf plan on condition of anonymity because details were still being worked out. One said the fund would involve several million dollars a month. It is said to be earmarked for salaries, but it was not clear whether there would be any effort to prevent the money from being used to buy arms, an issue that could prompt stronger accusations of military meddling.

Anti-regime activists inside Syria welcomed the news, while worrying that the aid would be too little, too late.

"This is what we have been asking for, but if they had decided to do this months ago, we could have avoided a large number of martyrs," said Fadi al-Yassin from the northern province of Idlib. "We know that there is no way to topple the regime without force."

As the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, Annan has been pushing a six-point plan to end the country's crisis that includes an immediate daily two-hour halt to fighting so aid can reach suffering civilians. It also calls for an overall cease-fire so all parties can discuss a political solution.

Annan is scheduled to brief the U.N. Security Council in New York on his progress Monday.

The Syrian government has said it accepts his plan while rejecting some of the steps it requires, like withdrawing its troops from towns and cities. Its attacks on opposition areas have continued unabated.

The opposition has also rejected dialogue with the regime, saying it has killed too many people to be part of a solution to the crisis.

While international condemnation of Assad's crackdown has grown, Russia and China have stood by Assad, twice protecting his regime from censure by the U.N. Security Council. Neither country accepted invitations to Sunday's conference, dubbed "Friends of the Syrian People."

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized the meeting for not including the Syrian government and "many influential groups of Syrian opposition."

In a statement, she said Annan's plan - which does not call specifically for Assad to leave office - is the best way to settle the conflict and criticized the moves to help rebel forces.

"The statements and assurances about direct military and logistical support of the military opposition that have been made in Istanbul undoubtedly contradict the task of peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict," she said.

Syria also blasted the conference, saying in an editorial in the state-run al-Baath newspaper that the conference sought to "blow up and derail" Annan's mission.

Violence continued in Syria Monday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three civilians, five rebels and one government soldier were killed in clashes in the northern Idlib province.

In the northern city of Aleppo, explosives stashed in a kiosk blew up, killing one person, the group said, while rebels in the south killed two soldiers at a checkpoint.

Government forces stormed the southern town of Dael, raiding activist homes and setting some on fire, the Observatory said. Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, said more than 20 homes had been damaged.

Residents could not be reached for comment and activists' claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government rarely comments on specific incidents and bars most media from working inside the country.

Syria's uprising began in March 2011 as part of the Arab Spring with peaceful protests calling for political reforms. Assad's regime sent tanks, snipers and thugs to try to quash the revolt, and many in the opposition have taken up arms to defend themselves and attack government troops.