U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkish leaders Sunday to speedily restore full diplomatic relations with Israel, two American allies the U.S. sees as anchors of stability in a Middle East wracked by Syria's civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.

Turkey, however, demanded that Israel end all "embargoes" against the Palestinians first.

Turkey's foreign minister on Saturday hit back at Syrian President Bashar Assad's claims in an interview that Ankara made a pact with Israel against Damascus.

"Such arguments like Turkey is in cooperation with Israel against Syria have no grounds," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

Turkey's energy minister has criticized the United States not joining in the $22 billion tender to build the country's second nuclear power plant, local media reported on Saturday.

"If we are not building the nuclear power plant with America, which strategic project will we handle with them?" Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as telling the daily Hurriyet newspaper.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned that the fall of his regime would destabilize the region "for many years", as U.S. President Barack Obama announced talks with Middle East allies over the crisis.

"The whole world knows that if Syria is partitioned, or if terrorist forces take control of the country, there will be direct contagion of the surrounding countries," Assad said in an interview with two Turkish media outlets, video of which was posted on his Facebook page Friday.

Turkey, on a renewed push to join the EU, has adopted a long-awaited law to regulate migration and asylum in a move hailed Friday by the European bloc.

The country, which bridges Europe and Asia, is hosting up to 400,000 refugees escaping conflict in neighboring Syria and is under pressure to regulate their legal status at a time when it is bent on relaunching stalled EU entry talks.

President Barack Obama will host leaders from key U.S. allies Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks, amid turmoil in Syria, the White House said Friday.

The U.S. administration said Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet with Obama on April 26 for talks "Jordan's political and economic reforms, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, and additional regional issues of mutual concern."

The families of nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted by rebels in Syria closed on Friday the shops owned by Syrians in a neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs pending the release of their loved ones.

Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case of the men abducted in May last year, told the National News Agency that the closure of the shops in Hay el-Sellom is a first step in the protest aimed at pressuring the involved parties to set the pilgrims free.

Turkey insisted Thursday the political climate was ripe to end the dispute over the decades-old division of Cyprus, as part of Ankara's renewed push to join the European Union.

"The (February) election of Mr.(Nicos) Anastasiades as the new president of the new Greek Cypriot administration itself is a great opportunity because he was the leading supporter of the Annan plan back in 2004 which would resolve the Cyprus problem, which would reunite the island," Turkey's European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis told Agence France Presse in Vilnius.

Turkey is still negotiating with Japanese and Chinese firms for a $22 billion tender to build a nuclear power plant and the process is not yet concluded, the country's energy minister said on Thursday.

Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Istanbul this weekend before traveling on to Israel and Ramallah, a top U.S. official said Wednesday, on what will be Kerry's third trip to the Middle East.

Kerry will meet with top Turkish leaders to discuss the situation in Syria, before heading to Jerusalem and the West Bank on Monday and Tuesday.