EU leaders vowed to boost security and economic ties with Middle East partners and push for a diplomatic end to the Iran war, after talks in Cyprus focusing on the fallout from the conflict.

Leaders from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan as well as the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, were in Nicosia to meet their European Union counterparts on the sidelines of an EU summit.

By Michele Kambas and Ingrid Melander

NICOSIA, April 24 (Reuters) - EU leaders have asked officials to prepare a blueprint for how the bloc's previously obscure mutual assistance clause would work, host Cyprus said at a summit on Friday, amid doubts over the U.S. commitment to the NATO military alliance.

Worries about President Donald Trump's criticism of NATO for failing to back the war with Iran, along with his threats earlier this year to seize Greenland from ally Denmark, have created greater urgency to define the EU's mutual assistance provisions.

BEIJING, April 24 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Friday rejected an accusation by U.S. President Donald Trump that an Iranian-flagged cargo ship intercepted by U.S. forces was a "gift from China."

The U.S. said it fired on and seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. Iran's military said the ship had been travelling from China and vowed retaliation against what it called "armed piracy by the U.S. military."

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - An internal Pentagon email outlines options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support U.S. operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the U.S. position on Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands, a U.S. official told Reuters.

By Parisa Hafezi and Simon Lewis

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by President Donald Trump, who said he was prepared to wait for "the best deal" to end his conflict with Iran.

Fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has been one of a number of sticking points to resolving the wider eight-week regional conflict, along with Iran's nuclear ambitions and control of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - A woman and her five children, whose immigration detention of over 10 months marked the longest family detention under President Donald Trump's administration, were released on Thursday hours after a judge's order, their lawyer said.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District of Texas ordered the family's release on Thursday.

Iran's footballers will be welcome at this year's World Cup, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, distancing the US government from a proposal that Italy could take their place in the tournament.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio denied that Washington had asked the Iranian team not to come to the World Cup -- but warned the United States may yet bar entry to members of the Iranian delegation it judged to have ties to Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Washington and several other governments.

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the leaders of Lebanon and Israel could meet at the White House during the next three weeks - the period for which a ceasefire between the two countries has been extended.

Trump also told reporters that Iran will have to cut funding for Lebanon's Hezbollah.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; editing by Michelle Nichols)

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said in a post on Truth Social the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by three weeks.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Ryan Patrick Jones; editing by Michelle Nichols)

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said on Thursday it launched a civil rights probe into New York City's Department of Education over a pro-Palestinian group of public school educators.

The U.S. Education Department said it launched a Title VI probe. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act specifically prohibits any program or activity that receives federal financial aid from discriminating based on race, color and national origin.