France on Tuesday urged Russia and China to accept a new U.N. Security Council resolution on halting the violence in Syria to allow in humanitarian aid.

"A resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid in the most threatened areas is under discussion at the Security Council. We can hope that China and Russia will not veto this resolution," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told RTL radio.

The Progressive Socialist Party stressed on Tuesday that the party’s criticism of the Syrian regime is not linked to the internal Lebanese situation.

It said in a statement: “PSP leader MP Walid Jumblat emphasized during his recent meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir the need to prevent the unrest in Syria from spreading to Lebanon.”

Syrian security forces killed 102 civilians across the country on Tuesday, among them 35 in a "massacre" in the central region of Hama, as five regime soldiers were killed in fighting with deserters in the restive southern province of Daraa, activists and a rights group said.

Thirty-seven civilians were killed in the central province of Hama, among them 35 in a massacre in the town of Halfaya, and 50 civilians were killed in the central opposition bastion Homs, among them 26 in the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

Syria walked out of a U.N. debate on the human rights situation in the violence-wracked country on Tuesday, while its ally Russia urged Damascus to cooperate with efforts to allow in humanitarian aid.

Syria has been rocked by 11 months of anti-regime demonstrations and a military crackdown against a growing protest and rebel movement that has left more than 7,600 people dead, according to opposition activists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday called for "change" and "free elections" in Syria, which has been rocked by violent clashes between government forces and rebels.

"Iraq backs change in Syria," Maliki told Saudi newspaper Okaz in an as-yet unpublished interview, excerpts of which were released by his office in a statement.

Tunisia is ready to grant asylum to Syrian leader Bashar Assad as part of a negotiated settlement to the crisis, President Moncef Marzouki said in an interview to be published Wednesday.

Marzouki had last week called for judicial immunity for Assad and his family during an international conference on Syria held in Tunis.

State media on Tuesday hailed as a "victory for Syria" the adoption by referendum of a new constitution that ends the ruling Baath party's monopoly on power but which leaves extensive powers in the president's hands.

President Michel Suleiman said Tuesday that Lebanon will exert efforts to restore Syria’s membership in the Arab League whose decisions are respected by Beirut no matter what its stance is.

“No matter what Lebanon’s stance is at Arab League summits, it commits itself to its decisions,” Suleiman said at a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu in Bucharest.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri thanked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for extending the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the appointment of a new prosecutor.

Hariri telephoned Ban hailing his decisions, according to a statement issued by his press office.

Venezuela's oil minister confirmed that it sent two shipments of diesel to Syria last year and said it would send further supplies "when required" despite Western-led sanctions.

The United States and the European Union have tightened sanctions in an effort to isolate Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime over its deadly months-long crackdown on pro-democracy protests.