Middle-East set to overshadow UN General Assembly

The UN General Assembly, due to meet on Tuesday, is expected to focus on Iran's nuclear programme and the video that has prompted anti-US protests across the Muslim world.

US President Barack Obama is due to focus on the Middle East when he gives one of the opening speeches on Tuesday.

His address comes six weeks before the US presidential election.

But it is not to be seen as a campaign speech, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"I would expect the president to address the recent unrest in the Muslim world and the broader context of the democratic transitions of the Arab World."

Syria's 18-month conflict is not formally on the UN General Assembly's agenda but it is likely to be addressed by several speakers on the opening day, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, French President Francois Hollande and Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

The UN Security Council has been unable to reach agreement on the Syria crisis and on Monday UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that the situation was "extremely bad and getting worse".

While he did not have a full plan, he said he had "a few ideas". Brahimi has just visited Damascus as well as refugee camps in neighbouring Jordan and Turkey.

Brahimi has told the UN Security Council that the Syrian civil war is worsening
and the country faces a growing food crisis, envoys have said.

Brahimi told the 15-nation council on Monday that the Syrian government estimates there are 5,000 foreign fighters in the country and is increasingly portraying the conflict as a "foreign conspiracy," delegates at the closed meeting said.

According to a diplomat in the room, Brahimi gave a very downbeat assessment of the situation, saying that the situation has gone from bad to worse.

He reportedly told council members that 1.5 million people are displaced with 280,000 of them fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Brahimi was also reported to have said that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was "not serious about making reforms".

It is the first time Brahimi has briefed the Security Council since he took the job a month ago.

Brahimi was briefing the council about his recent visit to Damascus and the wider region, including his talks with Assad, ahead of the annual UN General Assembly gathering which begins on Tuesday.

President Obama is also set to repeat a warning that Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

But he has rejected calls from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for Washington to set Tehran "red lines". Tehran says its programme is for civilian purposes.

On the eve of the assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a UN meeting that Israel was a "fake regime", prompting Israel's UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, to walk out.

Netanyahu has recently appeared on US television to press for a tougher line on Iran, and he will take the same message to the General Assembly on Thursday.

While Syria is not considered an issue for the US presidential election, Iran is, our correspondent says.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney castigated his rival on Monday for not taking time out to meet the Israeli PM.

Romney also criticised President Obama's description of the murder of US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans as "bumps in the road."