Syria's new opposition coalition signaled Saturday that it intends to move quickly to establish a broad-based alternative government to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

After talks with French President Francois Hollande, coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib assured the international community that the transitional government will be composed of technocrats rather than politicians, and include representatives of all the war-torn country's ethnic and religious groups.

Syria's new opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib met Saturday with French President Francois Hollande for talks on protection of "liberated" zones, refugees and the formation of a provisional government for the war-torn state.

Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Khatib and his two deputies in the Elysee palace for talks that come just four days after France became the first Western country to recognize the newly-formed National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

A car bomb exploded as rebel and regime forces clashed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, while mortar rounds struck near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime were killed in fighting in Aleppo, said the Observatory, while a car bomb exploded in Liramun in the northwest of the city, and nearby areas were shelled.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague indicated Friday he would decide within days whether to officially recognize the new Syrian opposition after "encouraging" talks with its leaders in London.

Hague said he had pressed Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib and his two deputies, who are on their first visit to a Western capital since a united Syrian opposition was formed last weekend, on the need to be inclusive and respect human rights.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday said he feared the Syrian conflict could spread to neighboring countries, as Israel prepares to intensify its response to rocket attacks from Gaza.

"Syria might have an interest in a spillover of the conflict into other countries in the region to diffuse interest in the domestic conflict," Rasmussen told students at a university in Odense, Denmark, following a talk broadcast on the Internet.

Protesters emerged in their thousands across war-torn Syria after Friday prayers in solidarity with the new opposition coalition and the Palestinians of Gaza.

"We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, O Gaza," demonstrators cried out in the central city of Hama, as they waved the three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague indicated on Thursday he would decide within days whether to officially recognize the new Syrian opposition after "encouraging" talks with its leaders in London.

Hague said he had pressed Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib and his two deputies, who are on their first visit to a Western capital since a united Syrian opposition was formed last weekend, on the need to be inclusive and to respect human rights.

Syrian troops bombarded southern districts of Damascus and the outskirts of the capital before dawn, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists on the ground.

Residents in Damascus were kept awake through the night with the sound of explosions rumbling in the capital, they told Agence France Presse.

There is growing concern in the U.S. that Hizbullah has set up small training camps close to some of the chemical weapons depots in Syria, senior American officials said.

An alleged discovery that Hizbullah has established the camps close to some of the depots has renewed concern that as the chaos in Syria deepens, the country’s huge chemical weapons stockpiles could fall into “the wrong hands,” the officials told the New York Times.

France raised the prospect on Thursday of providing Syria's rebels with defensive weapons as Turkey joined it and the Gulf Arab states in recognizing the newly unified opposition.

France said it would discuss its proposal to ease the European Union arms embargo on both sides in the 20-month-conflict with its partners in the 27-nation bloc, but Russia said any such move would be a violation of international law.