TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanne hailed a deal to expand production in the world's biggest natural gas field in Qatar but told AFP on Sunday that more projects are needed and consumers will still have to "turn down the heating" to ease the growing price crisis.

The chairman and chief executive of the French multinational that is one of the world's most powerful energy companies said putting two billion dollars into a joint venture with Qatar Energy was the company's response to doubts expressed after it ended investment in Russia.

Qatar on Sunday named France's TotalEnergies as its first foreign partner to expand the world's largest natural gas field and eventually help ease Europe's energy fears.

The French energy major will spend an estimated $2 billion for a 6.25-percent share of the giant North Field East project that will help Qatar increase its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by more than 60 percent by 2027, TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne told AFP.

Qatar on Sunday named France's TotalEnergies as its first foreign partner to develop the world's largest natural gas field and eventually help ease Europe's energy fears.

The French energy major will have a 6.25-percent share of the giant North Field East project that will help Qatar increase its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by more than 60 percent by 2027, Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told a news conference.

Kaabi said it was "a marriage more than an engagement" as the accord will last until 2054.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday pledged $10 million to help prevent an ageing Yemeni oil tanker from unleashing a potentially catastrophic spill in the Red Sea bordering its waters.

The decaying 45-year-old oil tanker known as the FSO Safer, long used as a floating storage platform and now abandoned off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, has not been serviced since Yemen was plunged into civil war.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.

An overladen ship crammed with thousands of sheep sank Sunday in Sudan's Red Sea port of Suakin drowning most animals on board but with all crew surviving, officials said.

The livestock vessel was exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank after several thousand more animals were loaded on board than it was meant to carry.

"The ship, Badr 1, sank during the early hours of Sunday morning," a senior Sudanese port official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It was carrying 15,800 sheep, which was beyond its load limits."

Next to a palm tree, the Union Jack hangs limply on a pole outside a simple courthouse built decades ago on this eastern Mediterranean island.

"Morning your honour," the clerk said in English to the British judge, beginning another day at Her Majesty's Court in Waterloo Road, Dhekelia.

In this part of Cyprus, a former British colony, Britain is still in charge and Cypriots appear before the court.

Some on the island liken the arrangement to continued colonisation. Scholars called it "undeniably anachronistic" and "highly unusual".

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hosted Saturday a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, ahead of an expected visit of President Joe Biden.

Abbas reiterated his requests to remove the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from the US list of terrorist entities during the meeting, his office said.

Hundreds of people and several lawmakers protested Saturday in southern Lebanon against Israel moving a gas production vessel into an offshore field partly claimed by Beirut.

The demonstration comes just days before the US envoy mediating maritime border talks between the two neighbours is expected in Lebanon, and after the ship operated by London-listed Energean Plc arrived in the Karish gas field last week.

A night of clashes between militias in the heart of a residential district of the Libyan capital Tripoli raised fears on Saturday of escalating violence in the conflict-riven country.

The intense fighting that erupted late Friday between two armed groups that back rival prime ministers left at least one person dead and caused significant material damage, a security source told AFP.

Gunfire and explosions rang out across Tripoli during the fighting, described by one resident as possibly the "heaviest" seen in the city for more than a decade.

Syria has confirmed major damage including to runways at Damascus International Airport, which was closed for a second day Saturday for repairs after Israeli air strikes.

The transport ministry said in a statement that runways were out of service.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.