The head of the Higher Lebanese Syrian Council, Nasri Khoury, said he would start contacts with the judiciaries and the prosecutions of the two countries to deal with the Syrian accusations against al-Mustaqbal movement MP Jamal al-Jarrah.

Khoury told As Safir daily in remarks published Monday that President Michel Suleiman informed him during their meeting over the weekend that he should follow-up the issue to “have a clear picture” on the accusations.

The State Department has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, The Washington Post reported, citing previously undisclosed diplomatic documents provided to the newspaper by the WikiLeaks website.

One of the outfits funded by the U.S. is Barada TV, a London-based satellite channel that broadcasts anti-government news into Syria, the Post reported Sunday. Barada's chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is a cofounder of the Syrian exile group Movement for Justice and Development.

At least four people were killed and around 50 wounded when Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession in Talbisseh near the central town of Homs on Sunday, witnesses said.

Regime supporters also broke up two rallies in southern Syria, wounding five people after a presidential vow to end emergency rule within a week was dismissed as not enough and was followed by new protests.

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah helped facilitate Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s mission to form a new government by refraining from setting any conditions on the process, revealed Hizbullah circles to the Kuwaiti al-Rai on Sunday.

They explained that Nasrallah had informed Miqati in their last meeting that he is free to support and even finance the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and choose whichever ministerial portfolios he wants to grant the party.

Syrian troops have deployed along Syria’s border with Lebanon on Saturday in an effort to combat terrorism, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

It added that the Syrian border patrol have intensified their procedures along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

At least 2,000 Druze in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights demonstrated on Saturday in a show of support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli news website Ynet reported.

It said that marchers in the village of Buqata carried giant Syrian flags and portraits of Assad, whose security forces have been dealing harshly with protesters demanding political reform, killing at least nine people on Friday.

President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday the emergency law in force in Syria for nearly 50 years will be abolished within a week, and expressed his sadness at the deaths of protesters.

"The juridical commission on the emergency law has prepared a series of proposals for new legislation, and these proposals will be submitted to the government, which will issue a new law within a week at the most," he said.

A Syrian policeman was killed as protests demanding freedoms and reform snowballed a month after they started in one of the Middle East's most autocratic countries, state media reported Saturday.

Despite pledges of reform by President Bashar al-Assad who unveiled a new government on Thursday, protests on Friday gripped several cities and towns across Syria, namely in the northeast home to the Kurdish minority.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah said he would meet with Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday to inform him that he should be “punished” if the Syrian accusations against him turned out to be right.

“The reputation of the parliament and consequently the reputation of one of the lawmakers and his constitutional and legal rights are being raised,” al-Jarrah told An Nahar daily.

The March 14 General-Secretariat has reportedly urged U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly to preserve Lebanon’s stability after the latest Syrian accusations of al-Mustaqbal movement’s involvement in funding a terrorist cell in Syria.

Connelly visited Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid on Friday.