BEIJING, April 20 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping called for normal passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz to be maintained, in a phone call on Monday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held as Beijing steps up efforts to help end the Iran war.

China is concerned over renewed instability around the strategic waterway, as a U.S.-Iran ceasefire came under fresh strain after the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship and Tehran signaled it would not join new peace talks for now.

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Recovering Iranian uranium will be 'difficult': Trump -

US President Donald Trump said Monday the United States obtaining uranium from Iran would be "long" and "difficult" in the aftermath of last year's US strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites.

"Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process."

By Peter Apps

April 17 (Reuters) - As U.S. Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington last weekend after unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan over the crisis in the Gulf, China’s Foreign Ministry was preparing for a bumper slate of visitors including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the leaders of Spain, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed "harsh action" on Monday against a soldier caught on camera vandalising a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon.

The photo, which the military determined was authentic after it spread online, shows an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross.

The sculpture was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel, the local municipality told AFP, but officials could not say whether it had been damaged.

By Mubasher Bukhari

ISLAMABAD, April 20 (Reuters) - Pakistan has put a $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons and jets to Sudan on hold after Saudi Arabia asked for the agreement to be terminated and said it would not finance the purchase, two Pakistani security sources and a diplomatic source said.

The conflict between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has stoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis for around three years, turning into a flashpoint for competing foreign interests and threatening to break up the Red Sea country, a major gold producer.

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained at a virtual standstill on Monday with just three crossings in the space of 12 hours, according to shipping data.

The oil products tanker Nero, which is under British sanctions for Russian oil activities, left the Gulf and was sailing through the Strait, according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax and tracking data from the Kpler platform.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has sharply criticised the Lebanese government's negotiations with Israel, which are set to enter a second round on Thursday.

After the first round of talks last week, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce pausing more than six weeks of war between Hezbollah and Israel, an explosive front in the broader Middle East war.

TOKYO/LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - British foreign minister Yvette Cooper will cut short an intensive diplomatic tour designed to build consensus around making a ceasefire in the Iran war permanent and on the next steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Cooper's department is at the centre of a new crisis over Peter Mandelson's appointment as Britain's ambassador to the United States, after the government last week said foreign office officials had overruled a recommendation that he should not be given the role.

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, April 20 (Reuters) - Israel on Monday told residents of south Lebanon to stay out of a belt of territory running the length of the border and not to approach the area of the Litani River, entrenching its grip over southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

The U.S.-mediated, 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday, largely halting the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that spiralled out of the conflict between the United States and Iran.

By Tuvan Gumrukcu

ANTALYA, Turkey, April 20 (Reuters) - This year’s U.N. climate summit will seek to turn past decisions into action, with financing the main focus, Turkey’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum told Reuters, as the country prepares to host and chair COP31 in November.