Al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr admitted on Monday that the audio recording that was circulated in the media last week, during which he was carrying out a weapons delivery deal with the Syrian opposition, was true.

“Yes this is my voice, and these are my own words,” Saqr told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said Monday it is wrong to bet on the outcome of the Syrian crisis to make political gains after several Lebanese men were killed as they were trying to infiltrate Syria.

“The essence of the government's policy of staying at a distance (from the Syrian crisis) was aimed at keeping Lebanon away from regional conflicts and safeguarding it against external threats,” Miqati told As Safir newspaper.

Even if NATO foreign ministers approve Turkey's request to deploy Patriot missiles on the border with Syria as expected, it will still take some weeks to get them in place, a top U.S. official said Monday.

The United States was "hopeful that NATO will be in a position to respond positively and agree to help Turkey bolster its air defences," a senior State Department official said.

A clash erupted on Sunday between Lebanese army troops and members of the rebel Free Syrian Army on the border between Syria and the Lebanese region of Bekaa.

“Today at 6:30 p.m., an army post in the border area of Masharii al-Qaa came under gunfire from armed men on the Syrian side of the border, which prompted troops to fire back,” the Army Command said in a statement.

Fifteen civilians were killed in a bomb attack on Sunday in a government-held district of the central Syrian city of Homs, state media reported.

"A terrorist attack struck the Hamra district of Homs," the state SANA news agency said, adding that it killed 15 people and wounded 24. State television said it was a car bombing.

Fierce clashes erupted overnight as Syrian forces hammered rebel positions around Damascus with artillery and air strikes, as part of an offensive aimed at securing the capital, a watchdog said Sunday.

The fighting broke out in Irbin, a town east of Damascus, as troops also shelled Zabadani to the northwest of the capital and the village of Mliha, leaving many people wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Lebanese Army is holding contacts with Syrian authorities to reveal the fate of around 25 men from northern Lebanon after reports emerged that they were killed as they tried to enter the Syrian town of Tall Kalakh, near the Lebanese border, An Nahar daily reported Sunday.

Several youth from al-Mankoubeen area in the northern city of Tripoli have erected tents near al-Nour mosque in protest and warned they would take escalatory measures if the Lebanese authorities brought no new information about their fate.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has said the Syrian war has "negative ramifications" for the region but advocated dialogue as the only solution to the crisis.

"There should not be any external military or any other kind of intervention," said Mansour at a one-day summit in Istanbul on Saturday.

The air corridor over Iraq has emerged as a supply route for weapons for the beleaguered government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including rockets, antitank missiles, rocket-propelled grenade and mortars, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said that to the disappointment of the administration of President Barack Obama, U.S. efforts to persuade the Iraqis to randomly inspect the flights have been largely unsuccessful.

Michel Barnier, a member of the European Commission, who is responsible for internal market and services, stressed on Saturday that Lebanon is passing through a delicate situation.

“Lebanon is in need for the solidarity of the French people... And the European Union,” Barnier said after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.