Another general and some 30 soldiers have fled to Turkey from neighboring Syria and joined the swelling ranks of rebel soldiers based close to the border, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.

The defection brought to 13 the number of generals seeking refuge in Turkey since the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime erupted 16 months ago.

Saudi authorities beheaded on Monday one of its citizens after he was convicted of shooting dead two fellow Saudis, the interior ministry announced in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Musfer bin Atallah al-Jaeed shot dead Ahmed bin Mayud al-Sawat and Fares bin Masud al-Sawat after a dispute, the ministry said.

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius welcomed Monday's agreement to impose fresh EU sanctions against Syria but called on the 27-nation bloc "to go further".

"I'm satisfied that these new sanctions have been adopted but I would like to go further," Fabius told a news conference held during talks between European Union foreign ministers.

Egypt's Islamist president-elect, Mohammed Mursi, has pledged to strengthen ties with Iran to build a "strategic balance in the region," according to an interview excerpt given by Iran's Fars news agency on Monday.

"Part of my agenda is the development of ties between Iran and Egypt that will create a strategic balance in the region," Mursi, who comes from Egypt's long-repressed Muslim Brotherhood, was quoted as saying.

Israeli media expressed almost unanimous concern on Monday about the victory of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi in Egypt's presidential election, warning of a difficult new reality.

"Darkness in Egypt," read the headline of the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, with commentator Smadar Peri writing inside the newspaper that Mursi's victory was a dangerous development for Israel.

The Kuwaiti opposition described a ruling by the top court scrapping legislative polls as "null and void" and politically motivated, urging a reversal of the decision to avoid "turmoil" in the country.

"From a legal viewpoint, the ruling is null and void ... and accordingly has no value," said a statement signed by 35 members of the dissolved parliament following a lengthy meeting that ended at midnight Sunday.

Syrian troops pounded the central city of Homs on Monday, activists and monitors said, amid warnings from the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) of an impending "massacre" there.

Main opposition bloc the Syrian National Council (SNC) issued a distress plea from residents, urging international help "before it is too late."

Australia Monday announced fresh sanctions against Syria restricting or prohibiting trade across entire sectors as Foreign Minister Bob Carr urged Russia to take a lead role in regime change.

The new measures affect trade between Australia and Syria in oil, petroleum, financial services, telecommunications and precious metals and are in addition to an existing arms embargo and sanctions against individuals connected to leaders in Damascus.

Iran on Sunday welcomed the presidential election win in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, but made no mention of possibly resuming diplomatic ties cut more than three decades ago.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran congratulates the victory of the Egyptian people in this election and the presidency of Dr Mohamed Morsi, and pays homage to the country's martyrs," said a foreign ministry statement carried by state media.

An Israeli court on Sunday upheld government plans to deport illegal migrants from the Ivory Coast, paving the way for the imminent expulsion of an estimated 2,000 Ivorians.