UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will make 10 stops in the Middle East on a trip to discuss implementing the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, the United Nations officially announced Wednesday.

His visit will include Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iran.

"The focus of the trip" will be on implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. (Posted 12:56 p.m.)

Bush invites Afghanistan's Karzai to Washington 'in near future'

(CNN) -- President Bush on Wednesday invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai to visit Washington "in the near future," the Afghan president's office said.

Bush called Karzai and "both presidents talked about the situation in Afghanistan and the region."

"They discussed the progress Afghanistan, with the help from the United States, is making in fighting terrorism and rebuilding Afghanistan" and "developments in the region," Karzai's office said.

Bush assured Karzai of "continued and long term U.S. support for Afghanistan, it said. (Posted 12:47 p.m.)

Katrina survivor visits Bush: 'Please don't forget about us'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rockey Vaccarella's family lost their Louisiana home when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast almost a year ago. Wednesday he visited with President Bush to thank him for the government's help and remind him there's much more to do.

Vaccarella towed a replica Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer more than 950 miles to the District of Columbia, where he drank coffee with Bush in the White House Oval Office "and had a good old Southern conversation," he told reporters. He stopped in several cities along the way.

"I wanted to thank the president of the United States for sending so many trailers" to the region swamped by Katrina Aug. 29, said Vaccarella, 41, a resident of St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans.

And he said he told the president "please don't forget about us. ... And the president assured me he's not going to forget about us and he's going to do everything he can." (Posted 12:19 p.m.)

Khalilzad: 'Battle of Baghdad will determine the future of Iraq'

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday sounded a dire warning about the upsurge of sectarian violence in Baghdad, saying, "It is vital that Iraqis control sectarian violence and come together against the terrorists and outside powers that are fomenting the violence."

Zalmay Khalilzad's warning came in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column titled "The Battle of Baghdad" -- a fight he says is the key in the war to secure Iraq.

"The Battle of Baghdad will determine the future of Iraq, which will itself go a long way to determining the future of the world's most vital region. Although much difficult work still remains to be done, it is imperative that we give the Iraqis the time and material support necessary to see this plan through, and to win the Battle of Baghdad," he said. (Posted 12:11 p.m.)

KIEV, Ukraine - A Russian passenger jet carrying at least 170 people — including 45 children — crashed Tuesday in eastern Ukraine after sending a distress signal, killing all aboard, authorities said.

Russian authorities said they had ruled out terrorism, and Ukrainian officials said there was bad weather in the area at the time of the crash.

The Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 was en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg and disappeared from radar screens while flying over eastern Ukraine around 2:30 p.m., Russian and Ukrainian emergency officials said.

The plane’s tail section and other burning debris were found north of the city of Donetsk, about 400 miles east of Kiev, by residents about two hours after the distress signal was sent, said Mykhaylo Korsakov, spokesman for the Donetsk department of Emergency Situations Ministry.

Anatoly Simushin, deputy director of the St. Petersburg-based carrier said that there were 170 people on board, including 45 children.

“Unfortunately, we believe that no one managed to survive,” Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Irina Andriyanova said in televised comments.

A thunderstorm was raging in the area at the time of the crash, said a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry in Donetsk, who identified herself only as Yelena. She said there was lightning and heavy wind.

“It was not a terrorist attack,” said Leonid Belyayev, acting director of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry in St. Petersburg.

Fire on the plane
Interfax quoted Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Igor Krol as saying a fire broke out on the plane at 32,800 feet and that the crew decided to try to make an emergency landing. Interfax also quoted Russian aviation official Alexander Neradko as saying that the plane might have run into strong turbulence.

Andriyanova said she received information that “the plane most likely was hit by lightning.”

“There was no damage on the ground. After it fell, it broke apart and burst into flames,” Andriyanova said in televised comments.

Interfax cited other witnesses as saying the plane was intact when it hit the ground.

“It was falling down like a petal,” an unidentified woman told Channel One, waving her hand from side to side. “It was floating, it circled around, then it went down and then there immediately was an explosion ... and smoke started rising.”

The plane disappeared from radar screens two minutes after the crew sent a distress signal, said Yulia Stadnikova, another Russian spokeswoman.

Simushin said the pilot sent a total of four distress signals as he tried to climb above the storm, then descended to the exceptionally low altitude of 9,800 feet.

Pulkovo Airlines is among Russia’s largest carriers.

It was the third major plane crash in the region this year, and came less than two months after at least 124 people died when an Airbus A-310 of the Russian carrier S7 skidded off a runway and burst into flames on July 9 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

On May 3, an A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.

Russian-made Tu-154s are widely used by Russian airlines for many regional flights.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli troops on Sunday detained a senior Hamas legislator, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group, Palestinian officials and relatives of the man said.

Troops surrounded the home of Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the parliament, in broad daylight and detained him, said his sister, Yaqeen.

Al-Ramahi had evaded arrest since Israel began its crackdown on Hamas following the June 25 abduction of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip.

The army had no immediate comment.

Al-Ramahi, a physician by training, is the fourth-ranking member of the parliament, responsible for many administrative and procedural matters. With his arrest, Israel now has almost all of Hamas' West Bank leadership in custody.

Early Saturday, troops arrested Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer at a home where he had been hiding in Ramallah. He was the most senior Hamas official to be detained yet. Israel is now holding five Cabinet ministers and more than two dozen lawmakers. Four other Cabinet ministers have been released.

Mushir Masri, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza, called the arrest "cheap Israeli extortion that runs against all international laws." He told The Associated Press that "we hold Israel responsible for all the serious consequences if it insists on kidnapping lawmakers and ministers."

Despite Israel's crackdown on Hamas political leaders, and a large offensive in the Gaza Strip, the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, has still not been released. The militants holding him have demanded a wide-scale release of Palestinian prisoners -- a demand Israel has rejected.

PARIS, France (AP) -- French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Friday defended France's decision to send just 200 additional troops to reinforce the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and reiterated that the force needs a clear mandate to operate effectively.

"I can't let it be said or implied that France is not doing its duty in the Lebanese crisis," the minister told French radio RTL in an interview.

"Since the start of the crisis, France is on the frontline and it is the top contributor."

France announced on Thursday it was doubling its contingent to 400 troops. It currently leads the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon, and its decision-making on its role in a strengthened force has been closely watched.

The announcement from Paris was a disappointment to some at the U.N. who expected more, though it did not dissuade countries from pledging a total of 3,500 troops for the expanded force in a meeting in New York on Thursday.

Alliot-Marie pointed out that France was willing to continue leading the force as it expands from the current 2,000 troops to as many as 15,000.

The strengthened force is expected to work with about 15,000 Lebanese troops to restore peace to southern Lebanon after more than a month of violence between Israeli troops and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia.

Alliot-Marie also said she would keep in place 1,700 troops mobilized in the region who in recent weeks evacuated French and other foreign nationals from Lebanon and sent in humanitarian aid from aircraft based on French warships off the Lebanese coast.

France and Italy -- another potential European contributor -- have said the peacekeeping mandate is not explicit enough, and demanded the U.N. set clear rules of engagement for troops bolstering the force.

"You have to tell the troops why they are there. To support the Lebanese army, certainly, but to what extent? In what fields? Secondly, we also need to know what are the material and judicial means at our disposal," said Alliot-Marie.

"You can't send in men and tell them: 'Look at what is going on, (but) you don't have the right to defend yourself or to shoot'," she said.

French officials are particularly concerned about how the expanded force is expected to interact with Hezbollah, the militant group whose fighters who shot nearly 4,000 rockets into Israel during more than a month of fighting with Israeli troops.

Alliot-Marie said troop contributions to the expanded UNIFIL force should come from a great number of countries, both in Europe and the Muslim world.

"What we must absolutely avoid is giving the image of a Western world imposing peace on the Muslim world," she said.