Snipers shot dead a soldier and wounded another in Syria's flashpoint city of Banias Thursday, state news agency SANA said, a day after a deal was struck for the army to restore order there.

The killing comes nearly a month after nationwide protests broke out calling for greater freedom, political reform and the lifting of a draconian emergency law, which have been harshly suppressed by security forces.

Thousands of women staged a sit-in Wednesday on a main highway in northeastern Syria to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested in protest towns in the region, a rights activist said.

"More than 5,000 women are gathered on the main road linking the towns of Tartus and Banias to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested yesterday in Baida by security forces," Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

Mustaqbal bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah denied on Wednesday Syrian allegations that he had funded a terrorist cell to create unrest in Syria.

He told Al-Jadeed television on Wednesday: “The programmed Syrian confessions are aimed at tarnishing the image of a certain political camp and if they had proof of their claims then they should address the Lebanese Foreign Ministry.”

The United States initially opposed Michel Suleiman’s election as president, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Wednesday.

The October 16, 2007, WikiLeaks cable spoke of a meeting between then Army Commander Michel Suleiman and then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman during which the former rejected claims that he was a “Syrian agent”, voicing fears over what Damascus had in store for Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea had reportedly backed Nassib Lahoud, Butros Harb and Charles Rizk “as a last resort” for the presidency.

According to a WikiLeaks cable dated November 8, 2007 published by al-Akhbar daily on Wednesday, Geagea told then U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Feltman that the candidates he backed for the presidency are Lahoud, Harb and Rizk “as a last resort.”

Britain warned Tuesday against all but essential travel to Syria after a bloody weekend crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.

"In light of the deteriorating security situation in Syria we have decided to change the overall level of our travel advice: we now advise against all but essential travel to Syria," Foreign Office Minister for Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt said.

Syrian troops encircled the flashpoint coastal town of Banias Monday, where weekend shootings left 13 dead and scores wounded, a human rights activist said.

"Seventeen tanks were deployed" to Banias, the activist told Agence France Presse, adding that the army had surrounded the northwestern city and electricity had been cut off.

Syrian security forces killed a total of 28 people on Friday, human rights activists said Sunday.

Twenty-six died at the funerals of protesters killed in and around the southern agricultural town of Daraa, while two more were shot dead in the industrial town of Homs, in west central Syria.

Head of the Israeli defense ministry's political-security bureau Amos Gilad has said that Iran and Syria were supplying Hizbullah with missiles via planes and ships, adding that the Shiite party has more than 45,000 missiles.

“This poses a threat to Israel,” Gilad told the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily in remarks published Sunday.

The European Union's ambassador to Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst revealed that she had met with Hizbullah officials who informed her of the party’s positions on international resolutions on Lebanon.

She told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday that the U.N. Security Council resolutions cannot be addressed selectively, but they should be viewed as a whole package.