Egypt says it is working "diligently" to resolve a bitter row with Washington over alleged illicit funding of NGOs for which American and other activists are due to stand trial, U.S. Senator John McCain said on Monday.

Egypt's military ruler Field Marshal Hussein "Tantawi has assured us they are working very diligently to resolve the NGO issue," he told a news conference in Cairo during a visit aimed at defusing the row between the traditional allies.

The Red Cross said on Monday it was negotiating with the Syrian authorities and opposition fighters to try to bring a halt to violence in the country so it can deliver vital aid.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross is exploring several possibilities for delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid," said spokesman Bijan Farnoudi.

Saudi King Abdullah on Monday met Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali in the kingdom, where ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali is living in exile, state news agency SPA reported.

The leaders discussed means of "developing relations between both countries" and "the situation in Arab countries," said SPA of the first high-level meeting between Saudi and Tunisian officials since Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011.

Residents of the battle-scarred town of Misrata voted on Monday to elect their local council, in Libya's first poll in more than 40 years and held four months after the killing of Moammar Gadhafi.

"This is an historic event. We hope these elections will be an example" for the rest of Libya, the president of the port city's electoral commission, Mohammed Balrouin, told Agence France Presse.

President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that foreign parties were funding "armed terrorist groups" to destabilize Syria and intent on blocking any political solution, the state news agency SANA reported.

It said the embattled president made the accusation in a meeting with a visiting top Russian MP, Alexei Pushkov, head of the international affairs committee of Russia's lower house of parliament.

Violence killed 15 people across Syria on Monday as regime troops massed around Homs, sparking calls for women and children to flee the besieged flashpoint city, as Iranian warships docked at the port of Tartus in a show of force.

The reported buildup came as Mediterranean states meeting in Rome agreed to preserve Syria's territorial integrity and avoid an "Iraqi scenario," according to Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem.

Yemen's future president Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi has pledged to southern separatists and northern rebels that he will address their concerns, as fears mounted over election boycotts and escalating vote-related violence.

Both the separatist Southern Movement and the northern Shiite rebels are boycotting Tuesday's presidential vote, and attacks on polling stations and clashes between troops and anti-election protesters in the south have raised fears that polling day could be marred by violence.

Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said his bodyguards and other employees are being held in secret prisons and subjected to torture, in an interview broadcast on Monday.

Authorities have charged Hashemi, a Sunni, with running a death squad. He has been hiding out since December in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where the authorities have so far declined to hand him over.

Syria's opposition is expected to take part in an international conference in Tunis on Friday to which European Union and Arab League members as well as China, Russia and United States have been invited.

Speaking after a meeting of Mediterranean region foreign ministers in Rome on Monday, Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem also said the talks had agreed on the need to avoid "an Iraqi scenario" and preserve Syria's integrity.

Two Iranian warships have docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, state television reported on Monday, adding that their crew would be training Syrian sailors.

"The two ships, one which is a supply vessel and the other a destroyer have docked in Tartus, a port city north west of Damascus, and as per a bilateral agreement they will be involved in training the Syrian navy," the report said, without indicating when the vessels went into port.