Syria's army pounded the eastern belt of Damascus before dawn on Tuesday after opening a new front east of the capital, a watchdog said, adding that 60 people were killed in the province the previous day.

The violence followed a bloody Monday in which 190 people -- 116 civilians, 40 rebels and 34 soldiers -- were killed across Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's foreign minister accused the United States of being the "major player" encouraging anti-government rebels, but vowed the regime would not deploy chemical weapons in an interview published Tuesday.

Walid Muallem suggested to Britain's Independent newspaper that the U.S. may be using Syria to curb Iran's influence in the Middle East and that it had exaggerated Tehran's nuclear capabilities in order to sell weapons to Gulf countries.

At least 59 people were killed on Monday across Syria, including children, as regime forces backed by combat helicopters battled rebels in a new front in and around east Damascus on Monday, a monitoring group said.

Rebels from the Free Syrian Army claimed to have downed a military helicopter in the district of Qaboon during heavy shelling and fierce fighting that also engulfed nearby Jubar as well as several towns outside the capital.

The United States said Monday that the Syrian opposition's first priority should be to coordinate and set a democratic path after France called for the quick formation of a provisional government.

President Francois Hollande, stepping up pressure on Syria in a speech to French diplomats, pledged that France would recognize a provisional government as soon as it is formed and urged the rebels to be inclusive.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon is "shocked" by the reports of a new massacre in Syria and demands an independent inquiry, his spokesman said Monday.

Reports of hundreds of bodies found in Daraya near Damascus on Sunday after raids by government troops highlighted the lack of protection for civilians in the Syria conflict, said Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky.

French President Francois Hollande warned Monday that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would be a legitimate reason for a foreign intervention.

"We with our allies remain very watchful to prevent the use of chemical weapons by the regime, which would be for the international community a legitimate cause for direct intervention," Hollande said in a speech to French diplomats.

Suggestions that Syrian President Bashar Assad step down are "completely unacceptable," Syria's minister tasked with talking to the opposition said in Tehran on Monday.

"Foreign interference" was behind that idea, which would be "a violation of Syria's sovereignty," National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar charged in a news conference, the ISNA news agency reported.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi named a liberal Christian, a hardline Islamist and a woman as assistants Monday as he sought to reach out beyond his power base in the Muslim Brotherhood to rival groups.

Morsi's appointments, announced just before he left for China on a key trip abroad, were seen as a balancing act between Egypt's Coptic minority, which has felt threatened by Morsi's Islamist roots, and the Brotherhood's ultra-conservative Salafist rivals.

Syrian opposition activists have drafted a political roadmap after a possible ouster of President Bashar Assad, drawing on examples from other states that moved to democracy such as South Africa.

The working group, which brought together a broad spectrum of political organizations and religious faiths, produced a report called "The Day After Project: Supporting a Democratic Transition in Syria".

Turkish media on Monday relayed the video of a Turkish journalist missing in neighboring Syria for a week and reportedly being held by troops loyal to President Bashar Assad.

The video was broadcast by Syria's al-Ikhbariya news channel and relayed by Turkey's private NTV television where Cuneyt Unal, who speaks in Turkish with Arabic subtitles, says he crossed into Aleppo together with armed groups from Chechnya, Libya, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.