A Colombian oil worker, two South Korean engineers and two Japanese diplomats are killed when their vehicles are shot at on the Tikrit-Samarra road.

King Fahd issues a royal decree increasing the power of Saudi Arabia's Majlis al-Shoura (consultative council). The council will now be allowed to propose new laws and amendments to existing laws without first asking permission from the king.

UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan announces the appointment of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan as deputy crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

At least 54 Iraqis are killed by US soldiers in a gun battle in Samarra as US forces fight off an attempted banknote robbery.

An Israeli court gives two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas 36 life sentences each for helping to plan suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in 2002, which killed 12.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, takes up the rotating leadership of the interim governing council.

The US embassy in Riyadh issues a warning to its 30,000 registered citizens in the kingdom of possible terrorist attacks against compounds housing Westerners.

Reports emerge suggesting that the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq is to establish a 750-member paramilitary group formed of militiamen from members of the country's five main political parties.

The leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang, says that a delegation of senior SPLA members will travel to Khartoum on 8 December to continue peace talks with the government.

Tehran criticises comments made by US deputy secretary of state John Bolton on 3 December, in which he condemns Iran's 'illegitimate' nuclear weapons programme and criticises the government's 'economic incentives and aggressive propaganda'.