The army intercepted two vehicles carrying arms in the Bekaa border town of al-Qaa and detained four Lebanese and six Syrian nationals, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

An Nahar daily said that the army discovered a van and a pickup truck that were carrying arms and confiscated a number of machine guns, grenades, and a grad rocket.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a two-day visit focused on talks about Iran's nuclear policy and ties, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Erdogan, who was greeted at the airport by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, flew in from South Korea, where he had attended a nuclear security summit with other world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hundreds of Syrian opponents met in Istanbul Tuesday to cobble a common vision for an eventual post-Assad era ahead of a key global conference but the gathering was marked by dissent.

The Syrian National Council (SNC) main opposition group unveiled a proposal to lay the foundations of a new Syria to some 400 opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime's crackdown on dissenters has claimed almost 10,000 lives in a year, according to monitors.

The United Nations on Tuesday increased its death toll estimate for the Syria unrest to more than 9,000, as a rights group announced that nearly 10,000 people were killed.

"Violence on the ground has continued unabated," Robert Serry, a U.N. Middle East peace envoy, told the U.N. Security Council.

Syria's regime is committing human rights atrocities, including torture of men arbitrarily detained by security forces, that could amount to "crimes against humanity," U.S. envoy Robert Ford said Tuesday.

Ford also told a U.S. congressional hearing that President Bashar al-Assad showed "little interest in human rights" but argued against further militarization of the conflict, saying diplomatic pressure should prevail on Assad to give up power.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil rejected on Tuesday the abandonment of his proposal to lease power-generating ships in order to end Lebanon’s electricity crisis, saying that such a measure would lead to a “catastrophe” in Lebanon.

The minister said during a press conference after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “A solution, which we think is logical and fair, lies in leasing the vessels and constructing new power plants.”

Syria has accepted a proposal crafted by Kofi Annan that aims to end the bloodshed roiling the country, the envoy's spokesman said Tuesday, in a move cautiously welcomed by Western states.

As monitors reported almost 10,000 dead in the year-long uprising, and with at least another 17 people killed on Tuesday, U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan in Beijing cautioned that implementing his six-point plan is the key to peace.

Arab economy ministers opened talks in Baghdad on Tuesday ahead of a regional summit, focused on increasing tourism as the spectra of the crackdown in Syria loomed over the meetings.

Arab League officials have insisted the March 27-29 talks, a pivotal moment as Iraq bids to re-emerge as a key Middle East player, will cover a wide range of issues, but Syria, where monitors say over 9,100 people have been killed in an anti-regime uprising, remains in the limelight.

Syrian security forces infiltrated the Bekaa border town of al-Qaa on Tuesday, said various media reports.

Local residents said that clashes ensued between the forces and members of the Syrian opposition.

Beijing on Tuesday called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the mediation efforts of Kofi Annan, as the United Nations and Arab League envoy held talks with Chinese leaders.

"We hope that all parties in Syria can cooperate with Mr. Annan's mediation efforts, in order to create conditions for the political settlement of the Syrian issue," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists.