Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are to go to Iran “as early as practicable” to resolve issues over Tehran’s nuclear programme, the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Sudan’s “history” of backsliding on commitments means that sanction pressure must be maintained, despite its acceptance of a planned larger peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Lebanon linked a bomb attack that killed six UN peacekeepers in the south of the country to a deadly standoff between Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen and the army in the north where two more soldiers were shot dead on Monday.