Tanks and troop carriers were headed for Syria's embattled northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday, said the Syrian National Council, the main opposition alliance.

"The SNC has noted 42 tanks and 131 troop carriers leaving Latakia in the direction of the town of Saraqeb," in Idlib province, "as well as military columns heading for the town of Idlib," the group said in a statement.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr has warned that arming rebel fighters in Syria would lead to a civil war, his ministry said on Wednesday.

Arming the ill-equipped rebels, mainly Syrian army defectors, would "lead to an escalation in the military conflict and spark a civil war in Syria", Amr said, according to a statement issued by his ministry.

The Maronite bishops council condemned on Wednesday the ongoing dispute over the new official history book that is being prepared to be taught at schools, saying that it should serve the country’s interests and recount events objectively.

It said in a statement after its monthly meeting: “The new history book should include the whole of Lebanon otherwise it will create more division among the Lebanon.”

A Chinese envoy sent to discuss ways to end the crisis gripping Syria was to discuss a six-point peace plan with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and opposition figures on Wednesday, a newspaper reported.

Li Huaxin, quoted in al-Watan daily, said he already met on Tuesday with Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnus to discuss "the six-point vision of China" on the year-old bloodshed in Syria.

The Lebanese army took stronger security measures and set up checkpoints in northeastern areas bordering Syria on Tuesday after heavy gunfire was heard on the other side of the border, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said Wednesday that gunfire was also heard between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm on the other side of North Lebanon’s al-Kabir river inside the Syrian al-Arida village where the Assad regime forces carried out raids in their crackdown on protestors.

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday described the violence in Syria as "heartbreaking," but cautioned there was no simple solution, warning unilateral military action would be a mistake.

"What's happening in Syria is heartbreaking, and outrageous, and what you've seen is the international community mobilize against the Assad regime," Obama told a White House press conference.

Secretly filmed footage shown by a British TV station shows what the report said was evidence of patients being tortured in a military hospital in the battered Syrian city of Homs.

Images broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday show bandaged patients chained to hospital beds by their ankles, while a whip and electrical cable lie nearby.

Russia on Tuesday warned the West that it was "wishful thinking" to expect Moscow to change its stance on the Syria crisis following Vladimir Putin's presidential election victory.

A sharp and even bitingly sarcastic foreign ministry statement dealt a blow to hopes Russia will distance itself from the Syria regime as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov heads to talks with Arab foreign ministers on Saturday.

Syria is determined to press on with reforms and to fight "terrorism," President Bashar al-Assad, who has been battling a one-year uprising against his regime, said on Tuesday.

"The Syrian people, who have in the past managed to crush foreign plots ... have again proven their capacity to defend the nation and to build a new Syria through their determination to pursue reforms along with the fight against foreign-backed terrorism," Assad said, quoted by state news agency SANA.

The Syrian regime will collapse before the end of the year, Britain's ambassador to Damascus predicted in an interview published Tuesday.

Syria is "like a dam with fissures in it," Simon Collis told The Times newspaper. "The pressure is building up and one quite probable scenario is that, when it breaks, it will do so very quickly.