WORLD IN BRIEF

Italy May Offer Asylum To Freed Afghan Convert

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Italy said Tuesday that it might grant asylum to an Afghan man who was released from prison here after dismissal of a case in which he had faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity.

Abdul Rahman,41, was freed from a high-security prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday after a court dismissed the charges of apostasy against him for lack of evidence and suspected mental illness. He had been charged under sharia , or Islamic law.

Muslim clerics condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a "betrayal of Islam." They threatened to incite violent protests.

Afghan Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish said Rahman was staying at a "safe location" in Kabul. Rahman has appealed to leave Afghanistan, and the United Nations said it had been working to find a country willing to take him.

The Italian government said Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini would use a cabinet meeting Wednesday to press for asylum to be granted.

In southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, insurgents attacked U.S.-led forces, killing two foreign troops, including an American, the U.S. military said. At least 12 insurgents also were killed in the clash, it said. The Taliban said the attack was in Helmand province.

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EUROPE

· MOSCOW -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko opened talks with all major parties Tuesday as he parried demands from his former ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, that he quickly reconstitute the team that led the Orange Revolution 16 months ago to form a coalition government, with her as prime minister.

Preliminary results of Sunday's parliamentary elections show that no single party will be able to form a government. But Yushchenko appears unwilling to be pushed too quickly into one with the woman he dismissed as prime minister last fall, following mutual accusations of power grabs and mismanagement.

With 80 percent of the vote counted, the Party of Regions, led by Yushchenko's former rival for the presidency, Viktor Yanukovych, had 30 percent, with Tymoshenko's party in second with 22 percent, according to the Central Election Committee. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party had 15 percent.

Yushchenko, who met separately with Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, described the talks as "preliminary consultations," his office reported.