Tripoli need not immediately hand over the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's former spy chief, Abdullah Senussi, to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity, the Hague-based court said Friday.

The temporary suspension of the order requiring Libya to hand Senussi over came amid a legal tug-of-war between the ICC and Tripoli over where Senussi and also Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam should be tried.

The White House on Friday all but ruled out the notion of mounting a no-fly zone in Syria, billing it as difficult, dangerous and costly, and unsuitable to halting close quarters ground battles.

A day after U.S. officials pledged to stiffen military help to Syrian rebels, likely moving towards sending some form of arms for the first time, they made it clear that swift U.S. mission creep in the country is not on the cards.

Representatives from countries that support the Syrian opposition met Friday in Istanbul with rebel military chief General Selim Idriss, to discuss the possible delivery of weapons, a Syrian opposition spokesman said.

"Over the next 24 to 48 hours, there are going to be several meetings between the Syrian Military Council (SMC) and different countries to understand the needs of the SMC and to begin to really satisfy those needs," said Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Council.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a bilateral meeting at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland after Washington upped the ante in the Syrian war by pledging military aid to rebels, the Kremlin's foreign policy aide said.

Putin and Obama will meet on the sidelines of the G8 summit at the Lough Erne resort on Monday and will also kickstart a Syria session at the summit at the request of host Britain.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Friday slammed Israel's settlement surge in the occupied West Bank as undermining hopes of ending the Middle East conflict by setting up a Palestinian state.

"The secretary general is deeply concerned by the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Thousands of Islamists rallied in the Egyptian capital on Friday in support of calls by Sunni Muslim clerics for a holy war against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The demonstration took place outside a Cairo mosque where Saudi preacher Mohammed al-Oreifi called in a sermon for a "jihad in the cause of Allah in Syria."

France said Friday that it was unlikely the U.N. Security Council would agree to impose a no-fly zone in Syria, as Washington dramatically toughened its line on President Bashar Assad's regime.

"It seems unlikely such a measure will obtain the agreement of the Security Council," French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot told reporters.

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya denied on Friday that members of the Palestinian movement were fighting in the Syrian civil war.

He also rejected reports of internal divisions within the Sunni Muslim group over its ties with Shiite Iran and its ally, Lebanon's Hizbullah.

Germany said Friday it had noted "with respect" the United States' promise of military aid to the Syrian opposition but restated it would not deliver weapons to the conflict-ridden country itself.

"We take note of the U.S.' decision with respect," a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters after the U.S. accused Syria of using chemical weapons and pledged military aid to the opposition.

The European Union on Friday said U.S. allegations about the use of chemical weapons reinforced the need for U.N. inspectors to be deployed to Syria, and for increased efforts to find a political solution to the conflict.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the bloc had seen with "great concern the conclusions of the statement" by the White House on Thursday about alleged nerve gas use by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.