By Ahmed Hagagy

KUWAIT, Feb 11 (Reuters ) - Lebanon’s government will decide next week how to move to the second phase of a plan to extend its authority and place all arms under state control in areas north of the Litani River, its information minister said on Wednesday.

The decision will be based on a presentation by the army outlining its needs and capabilities, the minister, Paul Morcos, told reporters during a visit to Kuwait, where he was attending an Arab meeting.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas

CAIRO/GAZA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations Development Programme began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City’s oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk.

Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid‑waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave's main city.

NABLUS, West Bank, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Five months after Israel's Supreme Court ruled that its prisons were failing to provide enough food for Palestinian detainees and ordered conditions be improved, emaciated prisoners are still emerging with tales of extreme hunger and abuse.

Samer Khawaireh, 45, told Reuters that all he was given to eatin Israel's Megiddo and Nafha prisons was ten thin pieces of bread over the course of a day, with a bit of hummus and tahini. Twice a week some tuna.

PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - France will increase the number of visas for Iranians seeking asylum as a result of the recent crackdown by Iranian authorities, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.

Speaking in parliament, Barrot said Paris wanted to support the Iranian people by any means possible.

"In particular by welcoming opponents persecuted by the regime who are seeking asylum and refuge in France. We will increase our humanitarian visas for asylum purposes for these individuals whom we must protect," he said.

WARSAW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Poland and Italy will not join U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, Warsaw and Rome said on Wednesday, adding to the list of Washington's allies remaining on the sidelines.

Initially designed to cement Gaza's ceasefire, Trump sees the Board of Peace taking a wider role in resolving global conflicts which some countries fear means it could become a rival to the United Nations.

This along with the fact that Russia and Belarus were invited to join means many Western countries have taken a cautious approach.

By Pesha Magid

JERUSALEM, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. security firm that deployed armed military veterans to Gaza to guard aid sites run by a now-defunct distribution operation is seeking to hire Arabic-speaking contractors with combat experience, according to job listings on its website.

Israel's plans to tighten control over the occupied West Bank, paving the way for further settlement expansion, are a step towards consolidating illegal annexation, the UN rights chief said Wednesday.

The plans include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly, and extending greater Israeli control over areas where the Palestinian Authority exercises power.

Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the decisions by Israel's security cabinet were the latest in a string of measures to annex Palestinian lands.

By Dmitry Antonov and Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that new U.S. restrictions on the role of Russia and other countries in Venezuela's oil business were blatant discrimination and the Kremlin said it would clarify the matter with Washington.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a general license to facilitate the exploration and production of oil and gas in Venezuela. The license did not authorise transactions involving Russian, Chinese and Iranian nationals or entities.

By Yannis Souliotis

ATHENS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Most of the 15 Afghan migrants who were killed off the Greek island of Chios last week when their dinghy collided with a coast guard vessel died of head injuries, not from drowning, autopsy results seen by Reuters show.

A criminal investigation has been opened into the February 3 collision - one of Greece's deadliest migrant accidents in years - in which a coast guard vessel struck a dinghy carrying about 39 people, causing it to capsize.

DUBAI, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Iran's missile capabilities are its red line and are not a subject to be negotiated, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday, as Tehran and Washington eye a new round of talks to avert conflict.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks last week in Oman, amid a regional naval buildup by the U.S. threatening Iran.

"The Islamic Republic's missile capabilities are non-negotiable," Ali Shamkhani said according to state media while appearing in a march commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.