French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned Wednesday that Russia was isolating itself after its veto of a U.N. resolution on Syria and would try to convince his Russian counterpart to change tack.

Juppe said it would take "all my powers of persuasion" when he meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Vienna on Thursday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday declared the death of the Taef Agreement which ended the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon, calling on Syria’s ruling Baath Party to leave power.

At a seminar organized by the Friends of Kamal Jumblat Association on the topic of “The Rise of Islamists and Fundamentalism to Power in the Arab Countries”, Jumblat reassured that “the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya -- which were liberated from the chains of the regime -- are not in danger.”

The United States Wednesday dismissed Syria's call for a referendum on a new constitution, which critics see as a move designed to ease global outrage over the government's bloody crackdown.

"It's actually quite laughable -- it makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Britain and the Holy See on Wednesday called for an end to violence in Syria and underlined the role of Christians in the Middle East after a British delegation met with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican and Britain in a joint statement appealed for "an immediate end to violence in Syria," and stressed "the need for cooperation to overcome the present crisis" at a joint press conference in the Holy See.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Wednesday called on the March 14 forces to “stop betting on regional developments to alter the balance of power in Lebanon,” stressing that Lebanon will remain “the Lebanon of resistance for tens of years.”

Qassem’s remarks come a day after the March 14 forces held a rally at the BIEL hall in Beirut to commemorate the seventh anniversary of ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

Russia on Wednesday angrily dismissed claims that Syrian forces have been using chemical weapons against the opposition with the help of Russian experts.

"We categorically deny these fabrications," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Syrian troops on Wednesday launched an assault on the central city of Hama, as ongoing violence killed 29 people across the country, a rights group said.

Loud blasts could be heard in the Hama’s Hamidiyeh and other neighborhoods, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Russia Wednesday welcomed Syrian President Bashar Assad's decree calling for a referendum on a new constitution ending single-party rule for the violence-wracked country.

"We certainly believe a new constitution to end one-party rule in Syria is a step forward. It is a welcome idea and we hope the constitution will be adopted," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in The Hague.

Cut off by a relentless barrage of government shelling, activists in the besieged Syrian city of Homs have reverted to the age-old practice of using carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.

"From the activists in Old Homs (district) to those in Baba Amr, please tell us what you need in terms of supplies, medicine and food," reads one message attached to a pigeon's leg.

Syria's President Bashar Assad has decreed to hold a referendum for a new constitution on February 26, the official SANA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

"President Bashar Assad issued today a decree setting Sunday, February 26, as the date for the referendum on the draft constitution," SANA reported.