Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi Monday held talks with Syria's president on the "worrying" situation in the country.

"I had the honor to meet the president and as usual we exchanged views on the many steps to be taken in the future," Brahimi told reporters at his Damascus hotel, a day after he arrived to launch a fresh bid to end the conflict roiling Syria.

Israel's ex-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who quit this month after been charged with breach of trust five weeks ahead of a general election, may have the charges against him toughened, the justice ministry said Sunday.

Media reports said police will question Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, this week in an inquiry relating to the promotion of Zeev Ben Arieh, Israel's former ambassador to Belarus.

Russia said on Monday it would be "political suicide" for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad if it used chemical weapons against the armed opposition.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview released by the English-language state television channel RT that Assad had given Moscow repeated assurances he had no plans to order such an attack.

More than 700 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the conflict there erupted more than 21 months ago, a Palestine Liberation Organization official in charge of refugees said on Sunday.

"More than 700 Palestinians have died in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, including in Yarmuk" refugee camp in southern Damascus, the PLO's Zakaria al-Agha told officials of Palestinian refugees in Arab states.

Syria's information minister on Sunday played down Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa's assessment that the country's bloody 21-month conflict could not be resolved by military means.

"It is one opinion among 23 million opinions in Syria, which is a state led by institutions and leaders who will give the final opinion," said Omran al-Zohbi, referring to Syria's population.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday for the first time since an Egypt-mediated ceasefire on November 21, Israel's army radio and other media reported.

The reports said it fell on open ground and caused no injuries, but an Israeli military spokesman denied that a rocket had hit.

Iran, whose diplomatic ties with Cairo were cut three decades ago, on Sunday welcomed the new Islamist-backed constitution of Egypt, saying it would advance the goals of all Egyptians.

"This popular participation is a tremendous support for the Egyptian government in taking future strides to achieve the Egyptian people's progressive, Islamic and revolutionary goals," said foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, quoted by ISNA news agency.

Voter turnout topped 50 percent in Oman's first ever local elections for 192 councilors with advisory powers, the sultanate's deputy interior minister announced on Sunday.

Turnout reached "50.3 percent of the electronically registered voters," Khaled Albusaidi said, quoted by the official ONA.

Foreign ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states met in Bahrain's capital on Sunday to discuss economic integration on the eve of the annual GCC summit, a diplomatic source said.

The meeting was held behind closed doors and focused on "the complementary nature of the six members," whose overall GDP in 2011 amounted to 1.371 trillion dollars, the source said.

Yemen said on Sunday its security forces were still searching for two Finns and an Austrian whose whereabouts remain unknown since they were kidnapped in Sanaa.

Security services are "carrying out vast search and investigation operations to locate the kidnapped" foreigners, abducted on Friday in Sanaa, official news agency Saba quoted Interior Minister Abdelqader Qahtan as saying as he received an envoy from Finland.