U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday called for an end to violence in Syria and said its people should be allowed to democratically decide their future.

Syria's opposition is to meet in Brussels this weekend in EU-sponsored talks aimed at forging more unity among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, an EU spokesman said Monday.

The talks will gather the main opposition groups, including the Syrian National Council, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, the Kurdish National Council and the Democratic Forum, the spokesman said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated that Syrian President Bashar Assad is only keen on preserving his regime “even at the expense of Syria’s unity and stability.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The military campaign against Homs will pave the way for demographic and sectarian segregation aimed at dividing Syria, which is at the core of Assad’s plan.”

France and other Security Council members will examine steps to take following the suspension of the U.N.'s monitoring mission in Syria after its head briefs them on Tuesday, the French foreign ministry said.

"Major-General (Robert) Mood, the head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, will brief the Security Council on Tuesday following the suspension of the observer mission," ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said on Monday.

Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Richard M. Mills, Jr., held talks on Monday with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on the political and security situation in Lebanon and Syria, said the embassy in a statement.

He expressed his country’s “dedication to strengthening the Internal Security Forces as a modern professional police force that serves and protects all of Lebanon’s citizens.”

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon rose to 28,000 but only 20,000 of them are receiving humanitarian assistance throughout the country, the most recent update from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday.

Field trips and contacts with the Internal Security Forces revealed that new families have recently arrived to several towns in the northeastern Bekaa, including Hermel, al-Qaa and Mazraat Ain el-Jawzeh, it said.

Those responsible for attacks on U.N. observers in Syria must be brought to justice, U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said Monday.

"We must make our utmost possible efforts to ensure accountability for all perpetrators, including those who have attacked U.N. observers in Syria," Pillay told a meeting of the Human Rights Council.

Russia is preparing to send two amphibious assault ships to the Syrian port of Tartus where Moscow operates a strategic naval base to ensure safety of its nationals, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.

"Two major amphibious ships -- The Nikolai Filchenkov and The Tsezar Kunikov -- are preparing to be dispatched to Tartus outside of their schedule," the Russian news agency quoted an unidentified officer from the Russian naval headquarters as saying.

Syrian forces pounded Homs on Monday as they pressed their campaign against rebel strongholds in the city, while 34 people were killed across the strife-torn country, a watchdog said.

Monday's casualties come a day after 67 people were killed nationwide, including 15 in Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian security forces are imposing strict measures on the Lebanese-Syrian border all the way from the eastern border town of Arsal in the Bekaa to the northeastern border town of Wadi Khaled.

“The Syrian forces are strictly controlling the border to prevent gunmen and even humanitarian activists from crossing into Syria,” Syrian sources told the pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat on Monday.