By Jessica Donati and Clement Bonnerot

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Blackwater founder Erik Prince deployed a private security force to operate drones and help Democratic Republic of Congo's army secure the strategic city of Uvira against Rwanda-backed rebels, four people briefed on the mission said.

The AFC/M23 rebels briefly seized the city on the border with Burundi in December in a major blow to ongoing U.S. and Qatar-backed peace negotiations. They withdrew after Washington threatened to retaliate.

In a makeshift boxing ring etched into the sand between the tens of displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, a dozen young girls warmed up before delivering fierce blows at their coach's command.

Osama Ayub once ran a boxing club in Gaza City, in the north of the Palestinian territory, until it was destroyed in a strike along with his home during the war between Israel and Islamist movement Hamas.

By Jana Choukeir and Elwely Elwelly

DUBAI, Feb 10 - A top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader discussed ways to reach a "balanced and just" agreement with the United States during talks in Oman on Tuesday, as Washington and Tehran prepare to resume negotiations aimed at averting a new conflict.

Oman facilitated talks between Iran and the U.S. last week, which a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry said had allowed Tehran to gauge Washington's seriousness and showed enough consensus for diplomacy to continue.

JAKARTA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A proposed multinational peacekeeping force for Gaza could total about 20,000 troops, with Indonesia estimating it could contribute up to 8,000, President Prabowo Subianto’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said, however, that no deployment terms or areas of operation had been agreed.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday the top priority in his talks with US President Donald Trump would be the ongoing negotiations with Iran, as he presses for a tougher US approach to Tehran's ballistic missile programme.

So far, Iran has rejected expanding the scope of its talks with the US beyond the issue of its nuclear programme, though Washington also wants Tehran's ballistic missile programme and its support for regional militant groups on the table.

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday there was no date set yet for the next round of peace talks on Ukraine, but said the negotiations were likely to happen soon.

Russia, Ukraine and the United States met last week in Abu Dhabi for a second round of trilateral talks. They yielded no major breakthrough though 314 prisoners of war were exchanged, the first such swap since October.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

DUBAI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Nuclear talks with the United States allowed Tehran to gauge Washington's seriousness and showed enough consensus to continue on the diplomatic track, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after U.S. President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action.

Britain's Prince William criss-crossed the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday, meeting footballers, playing video games and chatting with customers at a cafe, even as scandal over his disgraced uncle Andrew's links to Jeffrey Epstein made headlines back home.

William, an avid environmentalist, was also set to later visit the historic city of AlUla, where he will learn about conservation efforts, according to Kensington Palace.

MANILA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Philippines' ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday that the country is seeing some signs that China is willing to work with Manila and "isolate" theSouth China Sea disputes which havehurt relations between the two nations.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez told reporters that the Philippines' relationship with China cannot be purely defined based on territorial disputes over the South China Sea.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by David Stanway)

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration's efforts to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested last year as part of its targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said on Monday.

Lawyers for the Turkish student detailed the immigration judge's decision in a filing with the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to her release from immigration custody in May.