A handful of U.N. observers resumed their tour of Syrian hot spots on Wednesday as envoy Kofi Annan urged the fast deployment of the full, 300-strong mission and voiced alarm about persistent violence.

Libya's oil minister says production is nearly back to its pre-war levels. It's now at 1.5 million barrels a day.

Iran's trading partners are looking for ways to avoid being hit by U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil transactions that take effect mid-year, with Turkey looking for other suppliers, India exploring options and smaller Asian countries arguing their imports from Tehran are tiny.

Iraq's oil ministry said Thursday that the U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. is not allowed to bid in the May energy auction because of its oil deals with the northern self-ruled Kurdish region in Iraq.

Arab countries are wasting tens of billions of dollars on subsidies for petrol and energy but dare not roll them back for fear of a political backlash, a UN report said.

Foreign firms dealing with Iran's oil and gas sector admit that severe Western sanctions are taking their toll on business, despite Tehran talking up its ambitions at the opening of an international industry exhibition this week.

Iran's vice president says his country is ready to sign oil industry contracts worth tens of billions of dollars, the latest claim by officials downplaying the impact of Western sanctions imposed on Tehran for its controversial nuclear activities.

Iran on Monday officially launched a US$1 billion first phase of an ambitious project to pump water from the Caspian Sea to a city in its vast and expanding central desert, state media reported.

Syrian troops held their fire in the hours after a U.N.-backed cease-fire took effect at dawn on Thursday, casting a silence over rebellious towns they had bombarded heavily in recent days.

In a drive to pull itself out of economic isolation, Uzbekistan is trying to attract investors with new tax concessions and rules limiting the government from interfering in foreign-owned companies.