Syria bolstered its troops Tuesday in the flashpoint town of Daraa as a rights group appealed for U.N. intervention in a bloody crackdown it said has killed 400 people since mid-March.

As the Daraa crackdown raged into a second day, Britain said it was working with its partners to send a "strong signal" to Damascus while France and Italy denounced the "unacceptable" situation in Syria.

Egyptian ex-interior minister Habib al-Adly pleaded not guilty as he went on trial in Cairo Tuesday accused of ordering the shooting of demonstrators during protests that toppled the former regime.

Adly and six former aides made a brief appearance in a packed Cairo courthouse before Judge Adel Abdul Salam Gomaa, who postponed the trial until May 21 to allow more time for defense lawyers as well for legal experts acting for families of victims.

Speaker Nabih Berri demanded on Tuesday that the investigation into alleged Lebanese meddling in Syrian affairs should be conducted in a legal framework.

He said during a ceremony commemorating poet Najib Jamaledddine: ““All Lebanese should be keener on Syria’s security and stability than the Syrians themselves.”

Italy and France called for an end to the "violent repression" against peaceful protests in Syria on Tuesday, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the situation was "unacceptable".

"We issue a strong call on the authorities in Damascus to end the violent repression against what are peaceful demonstrations," Berlusconi said to a news conference following the summit.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called for an end to the "violent repression" of protests in Syria, and said to Agence France Presse on Monday that London was working with the U.N. and EU to send a "strong signal" to Damascus.

"I condemn utterly any violence and killings perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against civilians who are expressing their views in peaceful protests," Hague said in a statement to AFP.

Bahrain has declared the second secretary in the Iranian embassy here persona non grata and ordered him to leave within 72 hours due to his alleged links with a Kuwait spy ring, state media said.

The BNA news agency named the official as Hujatullah Rahmani and said Iran's charge d'affaires in Bahrain was summoned on Monday to the foreign ministry where the decision had been conveyed to him.

The United States late Monday ordered embassy family members and some non-emergency personnel to leave Syria, citing the "uncertainty and volatility" of a crackdown on protesters there.

The State Department's ordered departure, along with a travel warning telling U.S. citizens to leave the country, followed another day of violent attacks on protesters by Syrian security forces.

NATO bombs wrecked Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence on Monday, while rebels in besieged Misrata said they had pushed loyalist forces out of the city.

Heavy explosions shook central Tripoli shortly after midnight as warplanes roared over the city.

The United States is considering targeted sanctions against Syrian officials to respond to "completely deplorable" violence used by Damascus's forces to crush dissent, an official said Monday.

Signs of a more muscular U.S. response to violence in Syria followed an assault by Syrian troops backed by tanks in the flashpoint town of Daraa, which killed at least 25 people, as a building crackdown reached new heights.

Syrian troops backed by tanks stormed the flashpoint town of Daraa on Monday killing at least 25 people, witnesses said, as a leading rights activist accused Damascus of opting for a "military solution" to crush dissent.

Troops also launched assaults on the towns of Douma and al-Muadamiyah near Damascus, witnesses said, as the head of the U.N. human rights agency slammed what she said was the Syrian security forces' disregard for human life.