NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday said the alliance would consider a request from Turkey to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries along its border with Syria "as a matter of urgency.”

Rasmussen, arriving for a meeting of European Union defense ministers, said NATO had received no formal request from NATO-member Turkey to date but added that if one was made, "we will consider that as a matter of urgency.”

The main Islamist rebel groups in Aleppo province, including Al-Nusra Front, have rejected the newly-formed Syrian opposition bloc saying they want an Islamic state, in an Internet video posted on Monday.

"We, the fighting squads of Aleppo city and province, unanimously reject the conspiratorial project called the National Coalition and announce our consensus to establish an Islamic state" in Syria, a spokesman announced in the video.

Syria's regime on Sunday slammed as "hostile" a French decision to host an opposition ambassador, as its forces bombarded southern districts of the capital and clashes raged nationwide.

France on Saturday invited the National Coalition, the newly formed Syrian opposition bloc, to send an envoy to Paris, after President Francois Hollande met its leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.

The family of a Palestinian-Jordanian journalist missing in Syria for more than three months has appealed for help in securing his release, Beirut-based media rights watchdog SKeyes said on Sunday.

"Nasser al-Kadumi, brother of (U.S. broadcaster) Al-Hurra correspondent Bashar Fahmi al-Kadumi... called for the assistance of everyone able to help ensure his release," a statement said.

Damascus deems hostile a decision by France to host an ambassador from the newly formed Syrian opposition National Coalition, a Syrian minister said in key regional ally Iran on Sunday.

"France is acting like a hostile nation," Ali Haidar, minister for national reconciliation, told Agence France Presse.

Iran on Sunday warned against sending weapons to Syrian rebels battling its ally in Damascus, saying that this would threaten regional stability and increase the "risk of terrorism."

"Some countries envisage arming the opposition with heavy and semi-heavy weaponry," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a speech to open an inter-Syria dialogue in Tehran.

Syrian regime forces bombarded southern districts of the capital Damascus and clashes raged nationwide on Sunday.

In Damascus, government artillery bombarded the southern district of Al-Hajar al-Aswad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria's air force dropped deadly explosive-filled barrels on several rebel-held areas across the embattled country on Saturday, a monitoring group said.

After battles with the army that have lasted several weeks, rebels seized control of Hamdan airport in the eastern town of Albu Kamal in Deir Ezzor province on the border with Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Germany is prepared to contribute Patriot missiles to a NATO mission to help Turkey at the border with Syria, the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Saturday.

The German army would contribute up to 170 soldiers as well as Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to such a NATO mission, the newspaper said.

Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir announced on Saturday his intention to form a “resistance brigade” in the southern city of Sidon.

He said during a press conference: “The decision to form the brigade has been suspended pending consultations with various powers.”