(Reuters) -Blocked road access to people hit by Afghanistan's earthquake have been the biggest challenge for response teams and rescue efforts in the impacted mountainous regions are relying on helicopters, a United Nations official said on Tuesday.

"There's been lots of landslides and rock falls, and access has been very limited to everybody in the first 24 hours," Indrika Ratwatte, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, said in a press briefing, speaking from Kabul.

KABUL (Reuters) -The death toll in Afghanistan's earthquake has risen to 1,124, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group working in the region, said on Tuesday.

At least 3,251 people have been injured and more than 8,000 houses have been destroyed in the disaster, the group said.

(Reporting by Saeed Shah in Islamabad, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by YP Rajesh)

By Sayed Hassib and Charlotte Greenfield

KABUL/MAZAR DARA, Afghanistan (Reuters) -Rescuers in Afghanistan will try to reach isolated villages in the eastern region of Kunar, the epicentre of an earthquake that killed over 800 people and injured more than 2,800, authorities told Reuters on Tuesday.

Rescue operations were carried out in four villages in Kunar on Monday after the quake struck and efforts will now be focused on reaching more remote mountain areas, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the provincial head of disaster management.

Denmark's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a Dane of Syrian origin who was jailed for having spent time with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria was in fact an informant for Danish intelligence services.

The case has captivated the Nordic country for years and has shone an embarrassing spotlight on its intelligence agencies.

The ruling paves the way for Ahmed Samsam, 35, to seek a reversal of his 2018 conviction in Spain for being a member of the jihadist group.

(Reuters) -Belgium will recognise a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said on Tuesday, adding to international pressure on Israel after similar moves by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.

Under mounting global criticism for its war in Gaza, Israel has been angered by the pledges to formally recognise a Palestinian state at a summit during this month's U.N. event.

By Joe Cash

BEIJING (Reuters) -In a show of solidarity with the aggressors in Europe's worst war in 80 years, China's Xi Jinping will convene with his Russian and North Korean counterparts for the first time as Donald Trump and other Western leaders watch on.

The gathering of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Beijing this week is testament to the Chinese president's influence over authoritarian regimes intent on redefining the Western-led global order while Trump's threats, sanctions and tariff-driven diplomacy strain long-standing U.S. alliances, geopolitical analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain set out emergency funding support for those affected by the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan, saying it would ensure that the aid does not go to the South Asian country's current Taliban administration by channelling it through its partners.

Sunday's disaster - one of Afghanistan's worst earthquakes - has killed more than 800 people and injured at least 2,800, authorities said on Monday, as rescue operations continued. The country's response to the crisis has been hampered by the shrinking of funding for Afghanistan, led by U.S. aid cuts.

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found traces of uranium in Syria in its investigation into a building Israel destroyed in 2007 that the agency has long believed was probably an undeclared nuclear reactor, it said in a report to member states on Monday.

The government of now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad said the Deir al-Zor site that included the building was a conventional military base.

By Charlotte Greenfield

KABUL (Reuters) -The shrinking of funding for Afghanistan, led by U.S. aid cuts, was hampering the response on Monday to a powerful earthquake in the east, with dozens of clinics closed and a helicopter out of use, humanitarian officials said.

The magnitude 6 tremor hit overnight, levelling villages, killing at least 800 people and injuring more than 2,800 in remote mountainside areas.

DUBAI (Reuters) -UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.

A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called "snapback mechanism" was "legally and procedurally flawed".