Reuters World News Highlights 1800 GMT Nov 18

LONDON/WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that more countries were seeking its help coping with the economic crisis every day, while banking and auto industry woes reverberated around the globe.

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BEIJING - A Hong Kong ship loaded with wheat bound for Iran was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, maritime officials said, the latest raid in the Horn of Africa's perilous waters.

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BOSASSO, Somalia - A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia on Tuesday, and another vessel was captured off the lawless state.

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DAMASCUS - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Syria and Israel on Tuesday to forge ahead with peace talks and said the Syrian-backed Palestinian group Hamas was hurting efforts to end Middle East conflict.

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GAZA - Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday citing continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel supplies in the coastal territory.

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LUOFU, Congo - Rebels in east Democratic Republic of Congo announced a military pullback on Tuesday to support a U.N. peace initiative and the government sacked its armed forces chief following a string of defeats.

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ABUJA - Nigeria's president on Tuesday unveiled a list of ministerial nominees including a former OPEC chief, nearly three weeks after sacking half the cabinet.

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TOKYO - Japan's opposition stepped up efforts on Tuesday to force an early election by stalling key bills including help for struggling banks, a strategy that threatens policy paralysis as the economy sinks into recession.

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ANKARA - Russia's defence minister said on Tuesday that Georgia was trying to build up its military and he warned this could spark even greater instability in the region than there was in the war in August.

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KABUL - Afghan government representatives and former members of the Taliban are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia soon for their second talks on a way to end the war in Afghanistan, an Afghan government official said.

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THE HAGUE - The U.N.'s highest court ruled on Tuesday it had jurisdiction to examine Croatia's accusation that Serbia committed genocide in the Croatian 1991-95 independence war.

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DHARAMSALA, India - Tibetans could push for independence from China if exile groups meeting this week in India decide that is their only option, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said on Tuesday.