* Pentagon: Israel may attack Iran before 2009 A senior Pentagon official was quoted by ABC News as saying there is “an increased likelihood” that Israel will carry out a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

* Barak and Iraq’s president: An historic meeting in Athens Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday had a brief meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at a conference in Greece.

* Polish president declines to sign EU treaty The Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, has indicated he will not sign the Lisbon treaty until Ireland decides what to do about its No vote.

* Poll: 76% of Israelis feel safer living as Jews in Israel than in Diaspora A vast majority of Israeli Jews – 76 percent – said they believed it is safer to live as a Jew in Israel than in the Diaspora.

* French EU presidency gets off to rocky start France’s six-month stint at the helm of the EU got off to a rocky start Tuesday, with Poland plunging the bloc deeper into crisis.

* Lebanon says prisoner swap marks Israel’s failure Lebanon said on Tuesday a prisoner swap deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah marked a “big failure” for the Jewish state.

* ‘UN report ignores Hizbullah violations’ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to submit on Tuesday morning the quarterly report on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1701.

* Sarkozy offers more protectionist Europe as French EU presidency opens During a one-hour television address, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, promised to “protect Europeans” during France’s time at the EU helm.

* Iraq Opens Oil Fields To Global Bidding Iraq’s government invited foreign firms Monday to help boost the production of the country’s major oil fields.

* U.N.’s Ban urges G8 to stick to Africa aid pledge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Tuesday to stick with a three-year old pledge to raise African aid levels to $25 billion a year.