U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said he warned Lebanese officials against allowing Syria or Iran to use their country to evade international sanctions.

In remarks published in An Nahar daily on Wednesday, Cohen said the essential message that he delivered to the officials is that they should take the utmost precaution and be sure that Lebanon would not slide towards permitting Syria or Iran to use it in an attempt to evade the sanctions.

At least 30 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday as the U.N. Security Council discussed the violence and long-time Damascus ally Russia said President Bashar al-Assad had "made a lot of mistakes."

Moscow's comments came as U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi called for a united international stand on the crisis.

Russia said Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was "making a lot of mistakes" despite repeated calls from Moscow for his troops and rebel forces to cease violence and seek dialogue.

"We believe that the Syrian leadership responded incorrectly to the very first manifestations of the peaceful protests," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Kommersant FM radio in a pre-recorded interview.

European Union foreign ministers will consider slapping fresh sanctions this week against Syria, Iran and Belarus as the bloc ramps up its drive to stop human rights abuse.

EU officials said ministers who gather in Brussels from late Thursday were expected to add 18 Iranians "responsible for serious human rights violations" to a blacklist of 61 people already under an EU travel ban and asset freeze.

Lebanon has a moral obligation to support the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and should use upcoming elections to "reject the apologists of Assad's butchery," Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said.

In strongly worded remarks, Feltman paid tribute to the Lebanese who took to the streets after ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination in 2005.

A deathly, blood-chilling silence hangs over the nearly deserted streets of Sermin, as a few remaining men await what they are convinced is an inevitable assault by Syrian government forces.

And this would not be the first for Sermin, just eight kilometers east of the rebel stronghold of Idlib that was overrun by loyalist troops last week, and not far from the Turkish border.

An American archaeologist has used satellite images and a computer program to uncover thousands of ancient human settlements in Syria, according to a research study published Monday.

Software developed jointly by Harvard University professor Jason Ur and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers can identify the remains of homes from the satellite images.

U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen held talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh, and a number of representatives from the Lebanese banking sector, announced the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

“In his meetings, Cohen reiterated the U.S. view that it is important to ensure that the current instability in Syria does not undermine the Lebanese financial sector,” it said.

Turkey said Tuesday it was bringing forward by a day to April 1 a "Friends of Syria" conference in Istanbul, designed to pressure the Damascus regime into halting its crackdown on opponents.

"We have decided to bring the meeting forward for technical reasons," a Turkish diplomat said of the gathering originally set for April 2.

Russia said Tuesday it was willing to support either a U.N. Security Council statement or a resolution on peace envoy Kofi Annan's mission to Syria as long as it contained no ultimatums.

"We are ready to back the mission of U.N. and Arab League representative Kofi Annan and the proposals to the government and opposition to Syria," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after holding talks with his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour.