India army kills Pakistan soldier in Kashmir: Pakistan army

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani soldier was killed and another injured in a gunfight between Indian and Pakistani troops in Kashmir on Sunday, a disputed incident that could heighten tensions between the nuclear neighbors after a period of rapprochement.

The Pakistani army said Indian troops had raided their Sawan Patra checkpost in Kashmir, a hotly contested area both countries claim as their own. The Indian military denied its soldiers had attacked a Pakistani position.

"Pakistan army troops effectively responded and repulsed the attack," a Pakistani army spokesman said in a statement.

The two sides then exchanged fire across the Line of Control, an internationally recognized line in Kashmir patrolled by troops from both countries, he said.

Indian army spokesman Colonel Jagadish Dahiya said Indian troops had not crossed the Line of Control. "However, there was a ceasefire violation by Pakistan. Our troops retaliated by firing," Dahiya said.

"None of our troops crossed the Line of Control. We have no casualties or injuries."

Another spokesman for the Indian army said its post at Churuda, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of major city Srinagar, came under "unprovoked" heavy mortar and automatic gun fire for about five hours early on Sunday.

"We did retaliate," Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.

There were more than 75 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in 2012, killing eight people. Most of the violations were exchanges of fire between the two sides.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947, when they became independent from Britain. The two countries share many similarities in language and culture, though most of Pakistan's citizens are Muslim and most of India's Hindu.

Kashmir, and the human rights abuses committed there by Indian troops, is a politically explosive issue in Pakistan. Pakistani security forces have long trained militant groups to attack Indian soldiers.

The two countries fought their most recent war in 1999, when Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control and occupied Indian territory in Kargil, but were forced to withdraw.

TENSION OVERSPILL

After a period of quiet, relations between the two countries nosedived again in 2008, when a militant squad rampaged through the Indian city of Mumbai, killing 166 people. India accused Pakistan of sheltering the masterminds behind the attack, charges that Pakistan denies.

The two countries have been slowly repairing relations in recent months. In November, India executed a Pakistani man who was the last surviving perpetrator of the Mumbai attack.

Last month the two countries signed a deal designed to ease visa restrictions for some citizens to travel between the two countries.

Tension between the two countries has also spilled over into nearby Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan. India offers military and economic aid there, but many Pakistanis fear this is an attempt to lessen Pakistan's influence.

The United States has repeatedly urged Pakistan to move against al-Qaeda and militant havens along its Afghan border. Pakistan says it does not have enough troops because so many of them are patrolling the border with India.

Some U.S. officials also believe Pakistan is unwilling to move against the militants because some elements in Pakistan's security forces would prefer to be able to use the militants to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops have pulled out by the end of 2014.

(Additional reporting by Arup Roychoudhury in New Delhi and Ashok Pahalwan in Jammu, India; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Italy's center-left leads in three-way race ahead of February vote

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center-left coalition, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, has a comfortable lead less than two months before the election, and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's bloc may win up to 15 percent, a poll said.

Monti was appointed in November 2011 to lead an unelected right-left government of experts to save Italy from financial crisis after Silvio Berlusconi quit amid a sex scandal and a crisis that threatened the euro.

The 69-year-old's centrist formation is now in a three-way race with the center-left coalition, led by the Democratic Party (PD), and the center-right bloc, led by four-time prime minister Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party.

The number of voters who say they will vote for Bersani's bloc in the February 24-25 parliamentary election has stayed about the same, at between 38 and 39 percent, and the PD alone is seen getting 32-33 percent, polling institute ISPO said.

Monti's bloc has gained to between 14 and 15 percent from just over 10 percent before he entered the race, and Berlusconi has boosted his own party's share to 17-19 percent from 13-16 percent at the beginning of December, the poll, published on Sunday, said.

If Berlusconi can seal an alliance with the Northern League, his coalition could pull in as much as 28 percent of the vote, ISPO said. The two parties may hold talks later on Sunday.

"The PDL has seen its consensus grow, thanks to the ever more frequent presence of Berlusconi on the television screen," said Renato Mannheimer, head of ISPO. Most of the PDL increase came from the large pool of undecided and disillusioned voters, Mannheimer said.

The number of undecided voters, or those who had planned to abstain, has fallen below 40 percent, down from almost 50 percent a few weeks ago, Mannheimer said.

Both Berlusconi and Monti have made multiple appearances on TV, in Twitter question-and-answer sessions, and in online video interviews over the past week as they seek to close the gap with the center-left. Monti is scheduled to speak in an interview with SkyTG24 television later on Sunday.

The new "With Monti for Italy" formation presented on Friday would itself win 9 percent, the poll said, and is drawing votes mostly from the center-left and the previously undecided, Mannheimer said.

"Most analysts see it as improbable that, as things now stand, the coalition led by Monti can win more than 20 percent," he wrote.

But if Berlusconi and the Northern League run together, the complexities of the electoral law might make a post-election alliance with Monti key to giving Bersani a stable majority in the Senate, Mannheimer said.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, led by comic Beppe Grillo, dropped to 13-14 percent from 17-19 percent a month ago, the poll showed.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

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Netanyahu tries to hold back far-right surge before Israel votes

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled on Sunday to hold back an opinion-poll surge by a far-right party, appealing in rare radio interviews for his supporters to stand by him in the January 22 election.

There is little doubt in Israel that Netanyahu's conservative Likud, running jointly with former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's nationalist Yisrael Beitenu, will win the highest number of parliamentary seats in the coming ballot.

But surveys show the Bayit Yehudi party headed by Naftali Bennett, a high-tech millionaire and former Jewish settler leader who wants to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, steadily chipping away at Netanyahu's margin.

One poll last week showed Bennett coming in second in the vote after drawing support from Netanyahu's traditional power base.

"I believe there is only one way to ensure the right remains in power in Israel, and that is to vote for me, for the joint Likud-Yisrael Beitenu list (of parliamentary candidates)," Netanyahu told Israel Radio.

"Any other vote, by those who want me as prime minister and don't vote for me, increases the chance that the left will return to govern and lead the country instead of us."

Bennett's showing in the opinion polls has driven the first chink in Netanyahu's armor in an election widely viewed as an affirmation of the prime minister's leadership of Israel rather than a real challenge to his stewardship.

No one party has ever won a parliamentary majority in an Israeli election. A strong result for Bennett could improve his prospects for a top position in a Netanyahu-led coalition and raise more international concern about settlement policy.

Peace talks with Palestinians seeking a state in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war have been frozen since 2010, and Jewish settlement has been expanding in the West Bank.

Flanked on the right by Bennett, Netanyahu faces a further challenge from Israel's centrist and left-wing parties, circling with renewed vigor after smelling a trace of blood in the political waters.

On Saturday, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Hatenuah party, said she and leaders of the centrist Yesh Atid and left-leaning Labour parties would "discuss the creation of a 'united front' to work together to replace Netanyahu".

Opinion polls suggest the three parties could collectively win about 37 parliamentary seats - two more than the number projected for Likud-Yisrael Beitenu - and potentially be tasked by Israeli President Shimon Peres with forming a government.

But disagreements over the terms for any centre-left partnership could make it elusive.

SECURITY CHALLENGES

Surveys still show Netanyahu - portraying himself as an experienced leader able to meet security challenges ranging from Iran's nuclear program to rockets controlled by Islamist militants on Israel's borders - likely to win the support of enough right-wing parties to ensure he remains in power.

But his appearances on the morning drive-time programs on Israel Radio and Army Radio were a telling departure for the prime minister, who rarely gives interviews to the local media.

He went on the air after an Israel radio poll on Thursday showed Bennett's party taking up to 18 of parliament's 120 seats, a gain of five, compared with 35 for Likud-Beitenu.

Netanyahu has also been stung by a renewed attack by Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's internal security service, who said in an interview published in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday that the prime minister was wavering and weak.

Last year, Diskin, who retired as Shin Bet chief in 2011, warned that Netanyahu sought a "messianic" war with Iran.

Asked about Diskin's allegations, Netanyahu said in the Israel Radio interview: "They say I am on a messianic mission. Let me tell you something - I am on a mission. It is not messianic. It is clear-eyed."

Top-level Israeli discussions about Iran, which Israel believes is striving to develop nuclear weapons in secret, "are the most responsible, serious and comprehensive" in the Jewish state's history, Netanyahu said.

"Preventing a nuclear Iran is my central goal in the next term," said Netanyahu. He has set out a mid-2013 "red line" for Tehran's uranium enrichment, signaling a postponement to any Israeli military action.

Iran, Israel's arch-adversary in the Middle East, says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes only.

Alluding to Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu, Netanyahu said he needed "a big party" behind him in order to continue "to withstand tough international pressure and direct wisely the matters vital to Israel's security".

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Indian rape victim's father says he wants her named

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The father of an Indian student whose brutal rape provoked a global outcry said he wanted her name made public so she could be an inspiration to victims of sexual assault, a call that was quickly taken up by social media users and may pressure authorities to allow her identity to be revealed.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died on December 28 in a Singapore hospital, two weeks after a gang rape on a moving bus in New Delhi that ignited protests across India and neighboring countries and government promises of tougher punishments.

"We want the world to know her real name," the woman's father told Britain's Sunday People newspaper.

"My daughter didn't do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself," he added. "I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter."

The father's interview sparked widespread interest on social networking sites. Her name was the top trending topic among Indian Twitter users with many, including journalists and Bollywood actors, praising his decision to reveal her name.

Mainstream Indian media did not identify her, however, and she was still being referred to as "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure", by some TV channels.

A spokesman for Delhi Police declined to comment when asked if the authorities would take action against social networks or publications carrying the student's name.

There have been growing calls in India to name the victim. Politician Shashi Tharoor last week questioned the merit of keeping her anonymous, and suggested naming new anti-rape law after her, a proposal her father supported.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims' privacy and keep them from the media glare in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The father later told Reuters he had no objections to the media using his daughter's name, but did not elaborate.

ACCUSED DUE IN COURT

Five men have been charged with gang rape and murder and will appear in a New Delhi court on Monday to hear the charges.

Rajiv Mohan, a prosecutor in the case, said Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital gave the cause of death as "septicaemia from multi-organ failure due to multiple organ injuries".

Mohan said the prosecution had matched DNA from her blood to blood found on the accused's clothes, and on hers, which one of the men had allegedly tried to burn to destroy evidence.

"The blood stain appearing on the burnt cloth has been tallied with the blood sample of the victim," Mohan told reporters on Saturday.

The British paper named the father and his daughter, saying that the father had given permission, but added that it would not publish a photo of her at the family's request. Reuters has opted not to identify the victim.

Mohan told Reuters the police and prosecution still had no intention of revealing her identity. The spokesman for Delhi police could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Even if family members have given their permission to disclose the victim's identity for a greater cause, we can't disclose her identity," Mohan said, citing section 228a of the Indian penal code.

Legal experts consulted by Reuters said a situation could arise where Indian media, wary of legal cases, chose not name her while foreign publications do.

Citing the same law, Delhi police have started legal proceedings against TV network Zee News after it ran an interview with a friend of the victim who was with her during the attack.

He accused the police of responding slowly and failing to cover the victim and himself after they were thrown from the bus without clothes and bleeding.

"The police is not taking any chances and wants to be in a controlling situation, scaring everybody off by filing (legal complaints)" said senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde, who predicted such complaints were unlikely to lead to prosecution.

PUBLIC PRESSURE

Despite huge public pressure to move quickly, it might take several weeks to formally begin the trial against the five men, public prosecutor Mohan said. He said the case could be concluded within four to five months.

A juvenile also accused of the assault will be tried separately. Mohan said police had recovered items stolen from the victim and her friend during the attack.

The protests and fierce public debate that followed the December 16 rape have revealed fissures between conservatives who blame a wave of sex crimes on a loss of traditional values and a growing middle class used to women playing a larger role in public life.

The head of a Hindu nationalist organisation linked to the main opposition force, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Friday stoked debate by saying sex crimes and gang rapes mainly happened in urban India - a position not supported by facts.

"You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang rape or sex crimes. They are prevalent in some urban belts," said Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

While per capita rape statistics are lower than in many nations, one case is reported in India every 20 minutes.

A global poll of experts last year by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, showed India to be the worst place among G20 countries to be a woman.

Activists say most sex crimes in India go unreported, and official data show that almost all go unpunished. Reported rape cases rose nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

(additional reporting by Tim Castle in LONDON and Arup Roychoudhury, Satarupa Bhattacharjya and Annie Banerji in NEW DELHI; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alex Richardson)

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Egypt strengthens Islamist role in cabinet, eyes IMF deal

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt reshuffled its government on Sunday to strengthen Islamist control and pledged to complete talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan deal to stave off a currency crisis that risks igniting more unrest.

A senior IMF official is due in Cairo on Monday to meet Egyptian leaders over the deal, which was postponed last month to give Egypt more time to tackle political tensions before introducing unpopular austerity measures.

Finance minister Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy was sworn in by President Mohamed Mursi as part of a reshuffle that expanded the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood's direct control over ministries.

Mursi fired his finance and interior ministers after promising a reshuffle to assuage anger at an economic crisis which has seen the currency lose more than a tenth of its value since a 2011 uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Political unrest over a new Islamist-tinged constitution had delayed tax increases believed to be key to the IMF deal, but in a brief statement to journalists, Hegazy said he was "completely ready to complete discussions" with the Fund.

The political conflict triggered lethal street protests last month that added to pressure on the Egyptian pound as speculators worried about the instability began exchanging their local currency for dollars.

As he spoke on Sunday, the pound reached a new low, trading at 6.45 to the U.S. dollar. It has lost more than 4 percent of its value against the dollar since the central bank brought in a new system of currency auctions on December 30 in to preserve the country's dwindling foreign reserves.

Importers have warned that the weakening currency and uncertainty about how low it will go could lead to sharp rises in the prices of imports including food.

Hegazy, who replaces Mumtaaz Al-Saeed, a career bureaucrat, is an Islamic finance expert who teaches economics at Alexandria University.

He obtained doctorate in 1985 from the University of Connecticut for a study on how oil contributed to Kuwait's economic growth, according to a copy of his CV sent to Reuters by Alexandria University. It listed two dozen research papers on Islamic economics which he had either written or reviewed.

Though he is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood - the movement that propelled Mursi to power in a June election - he is seen as sympathetic to the group's aims.

Mursi swore in a total of 10 new ministers as part of the reshuffle of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil's government. It brought new parts of the bureaucracy under direct Muslim Brotherhood control, including the supply ministry.

The new cabinet has a total of eight ministers who are members of the Brotherhood or the Freedom and Justice Party, its political arm, a spokesman for the party said. The previous cabinet had five Brotherhood ministers.

"Dr. Mursi would like to be sure that he has a cabinet that shares his major orientations," said Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University. "He wants to be surrounded by like-minded ministers."

RESERVES AT CRITICAL LEVEL

The IMF signed the loan deal at staff level in November, but final ratification was postponed last month at Cairo's behest because of the unrest set off by Mursi's drive to fast-track a controversial new constitution.

Fearing further public anger at the time, Mursi cancelled tax increases believed to be part of a package of austerity measures agreed as part of the IMF deal.

The constitution was approved in a popular referendum and signed into law on December 26.

The IMF said on Saturday its Middle East and Central Asia director, Masood Ahmed, would visit Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials to discuss recent economic developments and "possible IMF support for Egypt in facing these challenges".

The Brotherhood is wary of any government measures that could damage its popularity ahead of parliamentary elections due to get underway by the end of February.

The IMF deal is seen as vital for boosting investor confidence and staving off a financial crisis.

Having spent more than half the country's foreign exchange reserves defending the pound, the central bank has warned the reserves had fallen to a critical level. Economists say the country's readily available foreign reserves will cover just over two months of imports.

The central bank said the reserves had slipped to $15.015 billion in December - little changed from November's level.

The pound slid by half a percent on Sunday at the central bank's fifth auction of foreign currency under the new auction system designed to preserve the reserves.

The bank sold all of the $60 million it had offered to banks at Sunday's auction. Last week, the bank sold $300 million at four similar auctions which bankers have described as a move towards a free float of the currency.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; writing by Tom Perry/Maria Golovnina; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Double suicide attack kills four in Afghan south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two Taliban suicide bombers targeted a community meeting at a major border town in southern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, local officials said on Sunday.

The meeting of tribal elders, known as a shura, was being held at about noon local time when a man drove a car near the compound and detonated a powerful bomb.

"Part of the roof where the elders were fell down after a suicide bomber struck the meeting," said Sayed Hashem Agha, the governor of the Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province.

Minutes later, a man strapped with explosives ran towards a group of police guarding the compound. They fired at him, causing the bomb to detonate.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was preparing to visit Washington for talks with U.S. President Barack Obama over the future of the country once NATO pulls out most of its troops by the end of 2014.

"Two suicide bomber attacked the shura office inside the district governor's compound, killing the shura chief and eight others," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said in a text message.

The Taliban's death count was at odds with official statements. The militant group routinely exaggerates casualty numbers.

The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, condemned the attack, saying it showed a disregard for civilian life.

Spin Boldak is the country's second busiest border point on Afghanistan's porous long frontier with Pakistan, and is considered an important smuggling route between the two countries. Numerous insurgent attacks have taken place there.

(Reporting By Sarwar Amani; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Pravin Char)

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U.S. drone attack kills 10 in Pakistan: intelligence sources

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed at least 10 people suspected to be Taliban fighters in Pakistan's northern tribal areas on Sunday, intelligence sources said, days after another drone strike killed a top militant leader in the area.

The attack on three Taliban compounds in Babar Pehari, South Waziristan, killed between 10 and 12 people, six intelligence sources said. More militants were believed to be in the compounds when they were hit, officials said, meaning the death toll could rise.

Three of the intelligence sources and a Taliban commander said that Wali Muhammed, also known as Toofin, was among the dead. He supervised suicide bomb squads for the Pakistani Taliban.

The Pakistani Taliban has established sanctuaries in the mountainous Babar area, 140 km (87 miles) northeast of Wana, the main city of the South Waziristan region, they said.

South Waziristan is controlled by the Pakistani army, which operates under an uneasy truce with militants from the local Wazir tribe.

Sunday's strike followed the death of Mullah Nazir, a Waziri militant leader, on Wednesday. Nazir supported attacks on American forces in Afghanistan but had signed two peace deals with the Pakistani army. On Sunday, thousands of his tribesmen protested against his killing.

Many Pakistanis say drone strikes infringe the country's sovereignty, and are angry over civilian casualties they cause.

Others say the drones are the only way of targeting militants who terrorize the local population in areas the Pakistani army is unwilling to patrol.

Drone strikes dramatically increased after U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009. There were only five drone strikes in 2007, but the number rose to 117 in 2010 before declining to 46 last year.

Exact casualty figures are difficult to verify. Most of those killed are militants, but some civilians have also been killed.

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshwar; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Pravin Char)

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South Sudan holds journalists for failing to cover president speech

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan has arrested two state broadcast journalists for failing to ensure coverage of a crucial speech by President Salva Kiir, a government official said on Sunday, prompting an outcry from an international media watchdog.

Journalists often complain of persecution by the security services of the African republic that seceded from Sudan in 2011. That year, Juba authorities closed a newspaper after it criticized Kiir for allowing his daughter to marry a foreigner.

The government of South Sudan's Western Bahr El Ghazal state said it had detained two senior staff at its broadcaster for "administrative issues" after the station failed to cover Kiir's visit to the town of Wau last month.

"They were arrested simply because when the president arrived here in Wau on December 22, 2012, he gave a very, very important speech," state information minister Derrick Alfred Uya told Reuters.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media watchdog, named the detained pair as Louis Pasquale, director-general of the state broadcaster in Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Ashab Khamis, director of state television.

The committee said the two had been arrested probably as part of a campaign to stop the media from investigating recent unrest in Wau. Soldiers shot dead 10 people protesting against the relocation of a local council last month, triggering more violence in the town located close to the Sudan border.

"We call on authorities to release Louis Pasquale and Ashab Khamis immediately, and allow journalists to cover events in the state without facing intimidation or arrest," CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes said in a statement.

A local journalist said security agents had been pressuring reporters in Wau to find out who had provided foreign news channels such as Qatar's Jazeera English with a tape which purportedly shows the shooting of unarmed protesters in Wau.

"I heard they arrested the journalists because they suspect the tape comes from state television," said the reporter, asking not to be named. "They were worried when the tape was shown on Jazeera."

South Sudan is a country with no media law, making it difficult for reporters to get information as the government and security services are mainly made up of ex-guerrillas who are used to impunity, a legacy of decades of civil war with Sudan.

Last month, unknown gunmen shot dead prominent blogger and government critic Diing Chan Awuol at his home.

France-based Reporters Without Borders ranked South Sudan 111th out of 179th in its 2011-2012 press freedom index.

(Reporting by Carl Odera and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Head of Libya's parliament survives assassination attempt

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The head of Libya's parliament survived an assassination attempt unharmed at his home in the remote desert interior of the country, his spokesman said on Sunday.

Mohamed al-Magariaf's residence in Sabha, 800 km (500 miles) south of the capital Tripoli, came under gunfire on Thursday evening. "(He) was unharmed and escaped the attack but three of his guards were injured," spokesman Rasmy Burwein said.

Magariaf was in Sabha for meetings with local officials and community leaders after Tripoli declared the region a closed military zone to try to curb rampant lawlessness.

Sabha and the rest of the Saharan south has been plagued by tribal violence since the start of the armed uprising in 2011 that ousted and killed veteran dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Tribal power is much stronger in the south than on the Mediterranean coast. Porous borders with neighboring states and the easy availability of arms have turned the south into a security headache for a weak central government.

It is still struggling to curb a myriad of armed militias that emerged powerful from the anti-Gaddafi insurgency.

(Reporting by Ali Shuaib; Writing by Hadeel Al-Shalchi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Assad "peace plan" greeted with scorn by foes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected peace talks with his enemies on Sunday in a defiant speech that his opponents described as a renewed declaration of war.

Although the speech was billed as the unveiling of a new peace plan, Assad offered no concessions and even appeared to harden many of his positions. He rallied Syrians for "a war to defend the nation" and disparaged the prospect of negotiations.

"We do not reject political dialogue ... but with whom should we hold a dialogue? With extremists who don't believe in any language but killing and terrorism?" Assad asked supporters who packed Damascus Opera House for his first speech since June.

"Should we speak to gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners? Should we have official dialogue with a puppet made by the West, which has scripted its lines?"

It was his first public speech to an audience in six months. Since the last, rebels have reached the capital's outskirts.

George Sabra, vice president of the opposition National Coalition, told Reuters the peace plan Assad put at the heart of his speech did "not even deserve to be called an initiative":

"We should see it rather as a declaration that he will continue his war against the Syrian people," he said.

"The appropriate response is to continue to resist this unacceptable regime and for the Free Syrian Army to continue its work in liberating Syria until every inch of land is free."

The speech was seen by many as a response to U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who has been meeting U.S. and Russian officials to try to narrow differences between Washington and Moscow over a peace plan. Brahimi also met Assad in Syria late last month.

"Lakhdar Brahimi must feel foolish after that Assad speech, where his diplomacy is dismissed as intolerable intervention," said Rana Kabbani, a Syrian analyst who supports the opposition.

The United States, European Union, Turkey and most Arab states have called on Assad to quit. Russia, which sells arms to and leases a naval base from Syria, says it backs a transition of power but that Assad's departure should not be a precondition for any talks.

REPETITIONS

Assad's foreign foes were scornful and dismissive of the speech: "His remarks are just repetitions of what he's said all along," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"It seems he's locked himself up in a room and only reads the intelligence reports presented to him."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one". In a Twitter message, he added: "Death, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are of his own making."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Brussels would "look carefully if there is anything new in the speech, but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition".

The 47-year-old Assad, tall and mustachioed, in a business suit and tie, spoke confidently for about an hour before a crowd of cheering loyalists, who occasionally interrupted him to shout and applaud, at one point raising their fists and chanting: "With blood and soul we sacrifice for you, oh Bashar!"

At the end of the speech, supporters rushed to the stage, mobbing him and shouting: "God, Syria and Bashar is enough!" as a smiling president waved and was escorted from the hall past a backdrop showing a Syrian flag made of pictures of people whom state television described as "martyrs" of the conflict so far.

"We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word," Assad said in the speech, broadcast on Syrian state television. "This war targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. Thus, this is a war to defend the nation."

Independent media are largely barred from Damascus.

Giving the speech in the opera house, in a part of central Damascus that has been hit by rebel attacks, could be intended as a show of strength by a leader whose public appearances have grown rarer as the rebellion has gathered force.

Critics saw irony in the venue: "Assad speech appropriately made in Opera House!" tweeted Rami Khouri, a commentator for Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. "It was operatic in its other-worldly fantasy, unrelated to realities outside the building."

DEATHS

The United Nations says 60,000 people have been killed in the civil war, the longest and bloodiest of the conflicts to emerge in two years of revolts in Arab states.

Rebels now control much of the north and east of the country, a crescent of suburbs on the outskirts of the capital and the main border crossings with Turkey in the north.

But Assad's forces are still firmly in control of most of the densely populated southwest, the main north-south highway and the Mediterranean coast. The army also holds military bases throughout the country from which its helicopters and jets can strike rebel-held areas with impunity, making it impossible for the insurgents to consolidate their grip on territory they hold.

Assad, an eye doctor, has ruled since 2000, succeeding his late father Hafez, who had seized power in a 1970 coup.

The rebels are drawn mainly from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad, a member of the Alawite sect related to Shi'ite Islam, is supported by some members of religious minorities who fear retribution if he falls.

The conflict has heightened confrontation in the Middle East between Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Arab rulers, particularly those in the Gulf who are allied with the West against Tehran.

The plan unveiled in Sunday's speech could hardly have been better designed to ensure its rejection by the opposition. Among its proposals: rebels would first be expected to halt operations before the army would cease fire, a certain non-starter.

Assad also repeatedly emphasized rebel links to al Qaeda and other Sunni Islamist radicals. Washington has also labeled one of the main rebel groups a terrorist organization and says it is linked to the network founded by Osama bin Laden.

Diplomacy has been largely irrelevant so far in the conflict, with Moscow vetoing U.N. resolutions against Assad.

U.N. mediator Brahimi has been trying to bridge the gap, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials to discuss his own peace proposal, which does not explicitly mention Assad's fate.

National Coalition spokesman Walid Bunni said Assad's speech appeared timed to prevent a breakthrough in those talks, by taking a position that could not be reconciled with diplomacy.

"The talk by Brahimi and others that there could be a type of political solution being worked out has prompted him to come out and tell the others 'I won't accept a solution'," Bunni said, adding that Assad feared any deal would mean his downfall.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Gulsen Solaker in Ankara and Tim Castle in London; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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