SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda dismissed on Saturday the new line-up as a sham and charged that Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for the past four decades, was incapable of bringing about any meaningful reform.

"The announcement of this government aims to give the impression that reforms have been brought in and that the only thing left was to form the government," Sayda told Agence France Presse by telephone in Beirut.

Iraq's foreign minister warned on Saturday of the danger that the Syrian crisis might spill over into neighboring states, and insisted that Iraq have a role in the future of Syria.

Syria, where President Bashar Assad's regime launched a brutal crackdown on opponents in March 2011 that has left thousands dead, shares a roughly 600-kilometer (372-mile) border with Iraq.

Saudi Arabia is set to pay the salaries of the rebel Free Syrian Army to encourage mass defections from President Bashar Assad's forces, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

The payments would be made in either U.S. dollars or euros -- which would mean a rise in salaries as the Syrian pound has fallen sharply in value since the revolt started 16 months ago, the broadsheet said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree on Saturday forming a new government, state television said, less than two months after controversial parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition.

"President Bashar Assad has issued Decree 210 forming a new government under prime minister Dr Riad Hijab," the television said.

At least 40 people were killed on Saturday in violence across Syria, the majority by regime forces who shelled rebel bastions and clashed with opposition fighters in several areas, a watchdog said.

The casualties included at least 10 regime troops who had tried to desert in Damascus province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Turkey said Saturday its downed fighter jet may have violated Syrian airspace after Damascus confirmed shooting it down, sparking a fresh crisis amid nosediving ties between the erstwhile allies.

President Abdullah Gul said it was routine for warplanes flying at high speed to cross borders, in comments that showed signs of easing tensions in the spat over the shooting in the eastern Mediterranean.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea renewed his rejection of the national dialogue sessions, saying that he is seeking serious talks, while the current discussions are bound to fail, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper: “Serious and immediate government action is the substitute for the dialogue.”

A demonstration was held on Friday by a number of Syrian refugees and Lebanese nationals in the northern city of Tripoli in support of the Syrian revolution, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

It added that they launched a weekly campaign to expel the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali in protest against “the massacres being committed in Syria.”

A Russian ship will make a second attempt to deliver military helicopters to Syria after docking in the northern port of Murmansk on return from its current voyage, Interfax reported on Friday.

The Alaed cargo vessel will return to Murmansk on Saturday and then set off again for the Syrian port of Tartus under the accompaniment of at least one other Russian ship, an unnamed diplomatic source told the news agency.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday met his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem, urging Damascus to do more to implement the plan of peace envoy Kofi Annan.