An arrest warrant was issued on Friday against a Major on charges of smuggling weapons to Syria, reported al-Manar television.

It said that the charges were made against Major Wissam Abdul Khaliq and that it remains unclear if he is a member of the army or any other security agency.

A car bomb struck an upscale area of Damascus on Friday, near the central law courts and Ministry of Information, state TV reported just two hours after a first bomb attack in the north of the capital.

"A terrorist car bomb attack hit the Mazzeh area (west of Damascus), in a street between the justice palace and the ministry of information," the state broadcaster said.

As the number of Syrians fleeing their homes continues to soar, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday it would more than double aid to people displaced inside Syria.

"UNHCR's share of the budget in a revised Syria Humanitarian Response Plan being presented to donors this morning is more than doubling to $41.7 million," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

The new head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday he has received positive commitments from Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, but stressed the promises needed to be tested in coming weeks.

Peter Maurer, who has just returned from a three-day visit to Syria, told reporters in Geneva that his meetings with Assad and other Syrian government officials had been "positive."

Syria has accused Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi of "signing the death warrant" of a contact group trying to solve the nearly 18-month conflict by calling for regime change, official media reported on Friday.

"Syria looks positively on any initiative seeking to contain the crisis and permit a return to normal life," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said in an interview on state television.

Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad lashed out at the March 14 alliance over its memorandum over the Syrian violations, accusing the coalition of covering up its participation in the aggression against Syria.

“The March 14 memo is incitement against Damascus and directly targets it,” Raad said in a press conference at the parliament.

Government forces shelled the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital on Friday, while soldiers stormed a nearby town and dozens of bodies were found across the province, witnesses and a rights group said.

Witnesses told AFP that the southern suburb of Tadamun and neighboring Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk came under heavy heavy shelling.

EU foreign ministers gather in Cyprus some 100 kilometers from the Syrian coast Friday to explore how to best assist its opposition while defusing a humanitarian crisis looming in Europe's backyard.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has put Syria top of the agenda for two days of informal talks starting around 0930 GMT, the first meeting of EU foreign ministers since the summer break.

President Michel Suleiman met with Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran last week, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

The daily said that the Syrian officials gave explanations to Suleiman on the case of former Minister Michel Samaha who was arrested last month on charges of plotting to carry out bombings in Lebanon with Syrian help.

France and Britain have agreed on the need to speed up the transition from President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria to a new government, French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday.

"David Cameron and I are in total agreement -- we must accelerate the political transition (and) help the opposition to form a government," said Hollande, after talks with the British prime minister in London.