ISTANBUL (AFP) - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday ahead of talks on nurturing friendship between Islamic societies and the West. The leaders were due to attend a meeting today of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative which they launched last year to foster respect and dialogue between Islamic and Western societies. A group of high-level representatives in the organization has gathered ahead of the meeting in the Ciragan palace, an old Ottoman site that now houses a luxury hotel. The group is due to present an action plan based on its discussions to the two heads of government today, when the outgoing UN head Kofi Annan will also be present.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI will meet in Turkey later this month with a top Islamic cleric who denounced the pope’s remarks on Islam and violence. During the pope’s November 28 - December 1 visit to the predominantly Muslim nation, he will also visit a symbol of Turkey’s official commitment to secularism - the Mausoleum of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who is honored as the founder of the modern Turkish state. Benedict and Turkey’s president for religious affairs, Ali Bardakoglu, will meet within hours of the pope’s arrival in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on November 28.

Turkish forces have killed three Kurdish rebels in Sirnak province, the local governor said yesterday, the latest in a string of clashes in southeast Turkey despite a unilateral Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ceasefire. Soldiers also seized 56 kilos (124 pounds) of explosives, 110 hand grenades and other ordnance, the Sirnak province governor’s office said in a statement, after five soldiers were wounded in the area this week in mine blasts blamed on the PKK. (Reuters)

The commander of French peacekeeping troops in Kosovo Saturday urged Albanians and Serbs, the two main ethnic communities in the province, to reconcile following the example of France and Germany after two world wars. “May this example help our Kosovar friends, whether they are of Albanian or Serbian origin, in order that time comes for a peaceful coexistence paving the way for a desirable reconciliation,” General Marc Duquesne said at a ceremony marking the 88th anniversary of the World War I armistice on November 11, 1918. (AFP)

A Serb ultra-nationalist leader awaiting trial before a Netherlands-based UN war crimes court has gone on a hunger strike, his associate and the tribunal said Saturday. Vojislav Seselj - in detention at the UN court, which indicted him for alleged war crimes during the 1990s wars in Croatia and Bosnia - is “refusing food or drink except plain water,” and also declines any medication for his high blood pressure and asthma, said Aleksandar Vucic, an official of Seselj’s hardline Radical Party. (AP)