TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday he is suffering from exhaustion and two allies said he was suffering under the strain of his job, in a rare disclosure apparently designed to combat rumors the hardline leader is more seriously ill.

A parliament member who confirmed Ahmadinejad's illness accused opponents of using it as an excuse to cast doubt on whether the increasingly unpopular president will run for a second term next year.

"Those who use such a natural issue for psychological warfare will fail" to gain support in public opinion, said Parliament member Mohammad Ismail Kowsari. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, every Iranian president has been re-elected to a second term, except the first one, Abolhasan Banisadr, who fled the country in 1981.

The months ahead are critical for Ahmadinejad if he wants to try to rebuild his political base and rebut critics who point to his unfulfilled campaign promises, including his pledge to extend Iran's oil revenues to poorer provinces around the country.

With more than 10 percent unemployment and 30 percent inflation, Iran was unable to bask in record-high oil prices earlier this year. And now with oil prices falling, Iran is certain to face a budget squeeze that could severely complicate Ahmadinejad's last months before he faces re-election.

Ahmadinejad is also confronting questions about his uncompromising stance with the West over Iran's nuclear program, which has severely soured international relations. The U.N. has also placed three rounds of sanctions against Iran since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 over Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Rumors that Ahmadinejad was seriously ill have been popping up on some Iranian Web sites affiliated with the president's opponents for several months. A cleric who supports him, Ayatollah Abolqasem Khazali, had even warned Ahmadinejad that his work habits could lead to hospitalization.

But a flurry of new rumors appeared after Ahmadinejad, who turns 53 on Monday, canceled a speech on Wednesday and did not attend a Cabinet meeting the same day.

Ahmadinejad did attend a religious ceremony on Saturday in Tehran, though he looked tired as he greeted supporters. State TV also showed him receiving credentials of three foreign ambassadors on Sunday.

"Thank God, I do not have an illness. Exhaustion is possible, but no illness," Ahmadinejad told a reporter on the sidelines of a meeting in Tehran. The footage was aired on state television Sunday night.

"Of course, we are also human beings, and sometimes we catch a cold," he said.

Earlier, Kowsari, an ally of the president, said the strain of his job had made Ahmadinejad sick, according to the state-run news agency, IRNA. But he downplayed the seriousness of Ahmadinejad's fatigue.

"The president will eventually get better and continue working," said Kowsari, who accompanied Ahmadinejad last month to the U.N. General Assembly. "Every human being can face exhaustion under such a workload."

Ahmadinejad, who is known for working long hours and getting little sleep, has low blood pressure and has gone to the hospital occasionally to seek treatment, said Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, the Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

"Even if you are immortal, you will suffer from working so much. ... That is what has happened several times to Mr. President over the last few years. However, he is up and about and fresher than us right now," he told reporters Sunday.

Ahmadinejad has grown increasingly unpopular in Iran, even among some conservatives who say his policies have not done enough to help the ailing economy. In recent weeks, some supporters of Ahmadinejad have been discussing potential candidates for the June 2009 election, implying that the sitting president is not their automatic choice.

Earlier this month, a prominent conservative analyst Amir Mohebian said conservatives now consider "going beyond Ahmadinejad a wise possibility."

Some reports in October also said a group of conservatives discussed the possible candidacy of Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a top conservative cleric close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.

In August, Nateq Nouri publicly criticized Ahmadinejad's economic policies, saying they threaten to keep Iran from its goal of becoming a regional superpower by 2025.

Javad Daliri, an independent political analyst, said Ahmadinejad would definitely run for re-election but faced the possibility of competition from other conservatives.

"Among conservatives there is criticism over Ahmadinejad's domestic and foreign policies. Also many conservative figures were not invited to the Ahmadinejad's administration, despite their expectations," he said.

JERUSALEM – The leader of Israel's ruling party, Tzipi Livni, gave up her attempts to form a coalition government Sunday, setting the stage for early elections and diminishing hopes for stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

Israel now appears to be headed toward months of political paralysis, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a critic of the peace process, is in a strong position to become the country's next leader. It would be the third national election in six years, reflecting the instability of Israel's fractious political system.

Livni, who hopes to become Israel's first female prime minister in three decades, has been trying to put together a government since she replaced the corruption-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of the ruling Kadima Party last month. But partners in the current coalition, which took power in May 2006, pressed new demands.

In a meeting with President Shimon Peres broadcast live on national TV, Livni said she did everything she could to keep the government intact but would not give in to what she termed political blackmail.

"Even at the last moment, I was not prepared to mortgage Israel's economic and political future or the hope for a better future and a different kind of politics," she said after the meeting.

She told Peres that "we'll go to elections ... and I intend to win them."

Peres, whose responsibilities include setting election dates, could ask another politician to try to form a government. But as leader of Israel's largest party, Livni is the only candidate with a realistic chance of getting a parliamentary majority.

Elections for the 120-seat parliament will likely take place in February or March, a year and a half ahead of schedule.

Early elections had appeared likely since Friday, when the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party announced it would not join a Livni-led government. Without the support of Shas, which controls 12 seats, it became impossible for Livni to maintain her party's majority.

Livni resisted Shas' demands for hundreds of millions of dollars for social welfare programs, which are popular among the party's impoverished voter base. She also refused to rule out negotiations with the Palestinians on a power-sharing agreement, as Shas had demanded.

As foreign minister, Livni has been Israel's chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians for the past year. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed, as the capital of a future state, and Livni has acknowledged that Israel must find a settlement for the conflicting claims to the holy city.

Peace talks were relaunched last November at a U.S.-hosted summit. At the time, both Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try to reach a final peace accord by the end of 2008.

Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh warned that the Israeli political turmoil threatened the fragile peace efforts. "Time is precious. The next few months will be wasted because of new elections and the U.S. elections," he said.

Most recent opinion polls have predicted that Netanyahu, leader of the hardline Likud Party, would win the next election, with Livni's centrist Kadima coming in a close second.

Livni might try to use the next few months to reach a breakthrough with the Palestinians. But the talks so far appear to have made little progress, and Livni may be wary of bold moves during a campaign.

Livni also could benefit from a cease-fire that has nearly ended rocket barrages from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. That cease-fire, however, is set to expire in December, and a resumption of fighting would bolster Netanyahu.

Peacemaking foundered during Netanyahu's three-year tenure as prime minister in the 1990s, and his election would likely spell the end of the current peace talks.

Netanyahu accepts the idea of a Palestinian state, but rejects negotiations with Abbas, claiming the Palestinian leader is too weak. He says the Palestinians must do more to crack down on militants and rules out any talk of sharing sovereignty of Jerusalem.

Peacemaking has been further hobbled by the dueling Palestinian governments in the West Bank, which Abbas rules, and the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamic militant Hamas since a violent June 2007 takeover.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas government, said the coming elections reflected "the depth of the leadership crisis" in Israel.

"We are not building many expectations on the changing of faces in the political map of the occupation, because changing the faces does not reflect any change in the attitude of the occupation," Haniyeh said.

DAMASCUS, Syria – U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq Sunday, killing eight people, the Syrian government said.

The Syrian report comes just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq told reporters that American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he said was an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency said Sunday's attack was on the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles inside the Syrian border. Four helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction, firing on the workers inside, shortly before sundown, the statement said.

The U.S. military in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

Iraqi insurgents seized Qaim in April 2005, forcing U.S. Marines to recapture the town the following month in heavy fighting. The area became secure only after Sunni tribes in Anbar turned against al-Qaida in late 2006 and joined forces with the Americans.

On Thursday, U.S. Maj. Gen. John Kelly said Iraq's western borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan were fairly tight as a result of good policing by security forces in those countries but that Syria was a "different story."

"The Syrian side is, I guess, uncontrolled by their side," Kelly said. "We still have a certain level of foreign fighter movement."

He added that the U.S. was helping construct a sand berm and ditches along the border.

"There hasn't been much, in the way of a physical barrier, along that border for years," Kelly said.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms — some with a reputation for being quick on the trigger in Iraq — are joining the battle against pirates plaguing one of the world's most important shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia.

The growing interest among merchant fleets to hire their own firepower is encouraged by the U.S. Navy and represents a new and potential lucrative market for security firms scaling back operations in Iraq.

But some maritime organizations told The Associated Press that armed guards may increase the danger to ships' crews or that overzealous contractors might accidentally fire on fishermen.

The record in Iraq of security companies like Blackwater, which is being investigated for its role in the fatal shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007, raises concerns about unregulated activity and possible legal wrangles.

"Security companies haven't always had the lightest of touches in Iraq, and I think Somalia is a pretty delicate situation," said Roger Middleton, who wrote a recent report on piracy in Somalia for Chatham House, a think tank in London.

NATO, with a flotilla of warships due to arrive in Somali waters this weekend, is trying to work out legal and regulatory issues surrounding the use of armed contractors before adopting a position on private security companies.

But the U.S. Navy, part of the coalition already patrolling off the coast of Somalia, says the coalition cannot effectively patrol the 2.5 million square miles of dangerous waters and welcomes the companies.

"This is a great trend," said Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet. "We would encourage shipping companies to take proactive measures to help ensure their own safety."

Somali officials also approve of the private contractors.

Abdulkadir Muse Yusuf, deputy marine minister of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said private firms are welcome in Somali waters. As well as fighting piracy, he said, they could help combat illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping.

Some security companies — not all of which let their employees carry lethal weapons — blame trigger-happy operators in Iraq and Afghanistan for tarnishing the reputation of legitimate businesses.

After a series of shootings that killed civilians, Iraqi legislators negotiated an agreement with the U.S. that will remove some of the private contractors' immunity from prosecution. U.S. authorities are investigating Blackwater for improperly bringing weapons into Iraq and for its role in the 2007 Iraqi civilian deaths.

The removal of immunity, Iraq's stabilizing security situation and a glut of security operators in the country have combined to tempt some companies to seek a new market in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden off Somalia.

Last week, Blackwater announced it was hiring a ship fitted with helicopters and armed guards for escorting vessels past Somalia's pirate-ridden coast. Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said it had received 15 inquiries so far.

Peter Singer, an expert on private security companies, agrees Africa is a potential growth market, but he says it's unlikely many firms will abandon work in Iraq and Afghanistan, where there are dramatically more business opportunities as long as the wars continue.

"If somehow Iraq ends and you see a shrinking amount of contractors there, most of them are in logistics and training services," Singer added. "None of that carries over to this role."

British firms dominate security work in the Gulf of Aden, but American companies are increasingly getting into the action, according an Associated Press examination of new anti-piracy efforts through interviews in East Africa, Europe and Washington.

In addition to Blackwater, Mississippi-based Hollowpoint, which has not been active in Iraq, says it will provide guards and recover seized ships.

"We'll get your crew and cargo back to you, whether through negotiations or through sending a team in," said CEO John Harris, who is discussing contracts with several companies.

There have been 63 reported attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year alone and probably many more have been carried out. Almost a third of the recorded attacks have been successful.

Ransoms can reach into the millions of dollars. That's a fortune in a failed state like Somalia, where almost half the people depend on aid and warlords plunder food shipments meant for starving children. The money goes to clan-based militias, some of which are fighting in Somalia's civil war.

Cyrus Mody, the manager of the International Maritime Bureau, says private security personnel can offer useful advice to ship captains, but he worries not all companies have clear rules of engagement or have sought legal advice about the consequences of opening fire.

So far hijackings are rarely fatal: One Chinese sailor was executed by pirates when ransom negotiations were going badly, and the two other known deaths resulted from a ricochet and a heart attack.

Mody says armed guards onboard ships may encourage pirates to use their weapons or spark an arms race between predators and prey. Currently, pirates often fire indiscriminately during an attack but don't aim to kill or injure crew. The pirates usually use assault rifles but have rocket-propelled grenades; some reports also say they have mini-cannon.

"If someone onboard a ship pulls a gun, will the other side pull a grenade?" Mody asked.

British contractors stress the importance of intelligence and surveillance, a safe room for the crew to retreat to if the ship is boarded, and the range of non-lethal deterrence measures available.

"The standard approach is for (pirates) to come in with all guns blazing at the bridge because when a boat is stopped it's easier to board," said David Johnson, director of British security firm Eos. "But if you have guns onboard, you are going to escalate the situation. We don't want to turn that part of the world into the Wild West."

Johnson's employees don't carry arms, relying on tactics that can be as simple as greasing or electrifying hand rails, putting barbed wire around the freeboard — the lowest area of the deck — or installing high-pressure fire hoses directed at vulnerable areas of a ship.

One tugboat confused its attackers by going into a high-speed spin when pirates approached, causing the attackers to give up — and leaving the crew sick but safe.

High-tech but non-lethal weapons include dazzle guns, which produce disorienting flashes; microwave guns, which heat up the skin causing discomfort but no long-term damage; and acoustic devices that can blast a wave of painful sound across hundreds of yards.

Johnson believes his company's refusal to carry guns has helped attract business: inquiries have gone up three- to fourfold in the past few months.

Other companies do arm their employees, pointing out that while non-lethal weapons are also carried and greatly preferred, they can be taken out by bullets or a grenade, sustain damage from salt water, and may have a shorter range than some weapons of pirates.

Pirate attacks have driven up insurance premiums tenfold for ships plying the Gulf of Aden, increasing the cost of cargos that include a fifth of the world's oil. But some insurers will slash charges by up to 40 percent if boats hire their own security. Earlier this month, British security firm Hart launched the first joint venture with an insurance company, offering discounted premiums for ships sailing past Somalia that used Hart's guards.

The 20,000 ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden on the way to or from the Suez Canal each year can't avoid the 1,800 miles of Somali coastline without sailing around the entire continent of Africa.

The jump in interest in private contractors — spurred by last month's hijacking of a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weapons — has brought new players into the market and a flood of business for well-established firms.

Drum Cussac, a specialist maritime security company, says its business has increased 50 percent the last few months. Not operating in Iraq or Afghanistan, the firm has traditionally supplied security teams to luxury yachts like the French Le Ponant, which was hijacked last April with 22 crew members onboard.

Maritime operations manager Michael Angus says the yacht business has doubled. And now, he says, merchant ships such as bulk carriers or oil tankers are asking the company for teams of armed guards, making what was once a seasonal business off Somalia a year-round enterprise.

London-based Olive Group, which protects Shell operations in Iraq, began offering services in the Gulf of Aden earlier this year. Its security consultant, Crispian Cuss, says just the presence of armed guards may be a deterrent. Pirates get information on crews and cargos from contacts in ports or at shipping companies and avoid vessels with armed men on board, he said.

"No client's ship has been approached by pirates while we've been on them," he said.

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Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium, David Stringer in London, Richard Lardner in Washington and Salad Duhul in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.