Palestinian police killed one man in the West Bank on Tuesday as it broke up rallies against a US peace meeting, while Hamas supporters in Gaza rallied in force against the conference.

Under the gaze of an Israeli tank, Syrian bulldozers slice through rocky terrain to build roads just inside a ceasefire line separating the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

Russia said on Wednesday the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) must be replaced with a formal, binding pact when it expires in 2009 and not the informal arrangement that the United States proposes.