White-robed worshippers from around the world have packed the streets of Islam's holiest city ahead of the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Banners welcoming the faithful, including the first international visitors since 2019, adorned squares and alleys, while armed security forces patrolled the ancient city, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed.

"This is pure joy," Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Qader Kheder told AFP in Mecca, before the event which officially starts Wednesday. "I almost can't believe I am here. I am enjoying every moment."

Libya's Tripoli-based government sought on Monday to quell public anger over chronic power cuts, devoting its weekly meeting to the electricity sector and admitting it had underestimated the problem.

The meeting followed a night of angry protests across the capital, where masked youths set car tyres alight and blocked roads.

A further demonstration had been planned for Monday afternoon to demand long-awaited elections, but organisers cancelled it, saying they did not want to be associated with possible acts of vandalism.

The United States concluded Monday that Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli gunfire and urged accountability, but said there was no reason to believe she was shot intentionally.

Dashing hopes for a result that would be accepted by all sides, the United States said it could not make a "definitive conclusion" on the origin of the bullet that killed the journalist on May 11.

Building work in Qatar's capital Doha, host of the 2022 World Cup, will be completed "well before the tournament", the event's CEO promised qualifying teams on Monday.

Referring to the many construction sites visible in the city at the opening of a two-day seminar bringing together representatives of the 32 qualifying nations, Nasser al-Khater promised to "put the final touches in place long before the tournament".

Lebanon's foreign minister said Monday any interference in US-mediated talks to demarcate its maritime border with enemy state Israel is "unacceptable".

His comments came after Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement launched three unarmed reconnaissance drones Saturday towards the offshore Karish gas field and Israel said it shot them down.

Libyans angered by rising prices, chronic power cuts and political deadlock planned further demonstrations Monday after a night of angry protests across the capital.

Masked youths set alight car tyres and blocked roads including a major coastal highway between central Tripoli and its western suburbs, but security forces did not intervene.

Videos carried by local media also showed demonstrations in Beni Walid and the port city of Misrata.

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority announced Monday an all-time revenue record, earning $7 billion during the last fiscal year following a series of toll hikes for vessels transiting the vital waterway.

Between July 2021 and June 2022 -- Egypt's fiscal year -- some 1.32 billion tons of cargo were shipped through the canal, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie said.

The income is over a fifth higher than the previous fiscal year's $5.8 billion in transit fees, and the highest figure ever recorded.

Another sandstorm has darkened Iraqi skies and it's hard to breathe, but Baghdad motorcycle delivery rider Milad Mitti doesn't have the luxury of missing a day's work.

Like most people in the now blistering hot desert country, the 30-year-old battles on in frustration, wearing goggles and a grey neck warmer over his mouth and nose "so I can breathe".

Iraq, still recovering from decades of war, is now facing new environment challenges on an unprecedented scale: since mid-April it has weathered a dozen dust storms that have often shrouded it in an otherworldly orange glow.

It is Islam's holiest pilgrimage, but the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia has in recent decades been plagued by deadly disasters, from stampedes to militant attacks.

Yet the last time the pilgrimage was cancelled outright was in 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt.

The coronavirus pandemic did, however, force the kingdom to radically downscale the 2020 event to just a few thousand people, a far cry from the 2.5 million believers who took part in 2019.

The annual hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, will start on Sunday with more than two million Muslims from around the world expected to take part this year.

It will be the largest pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic forced Saudi authorities to dramatically downsize the event.

More than 926,000 people took part in 2022, up from nearly 59,000 the previous year, according to official figures. In 2019, the Hajj drew in around 2.5 million pilgrims.