Two Lebanese rights groups, Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE) and the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, urged on Wednesday U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and Syrian National Council chief Abdul Basset Sayda to express a clear stance regarding the 11 abducted Lebanese in Syria.

The two groups issued a joint open letter, urging Annan and Sayda to express a clear stance regarding the practices that violate human rights, hoping that such practices “will not be the kind of change sought in the future Syria.”

Around 2,500 Syrians have fled to Turkey in the last 48 hours, a Turkish foreign ministry official said Wednesday, saying the numbers had increased amid fresh attacks even targeting U.N. observers.

The number of Syrian refugees in camps set up in southeastern Turkey had reached 29,500, said the official who wished to remain anonymous. Some 1,500 Syrians had arrived in the last 24 hours, he noted.

France on Wednesday called for a complete halt to arms sales to Syria amid growing Western criticism of Russian weapons exports to President Bashar Assad's regime.

"We are calling for a complete halt to arms exports to the Syrian regime asked by joint United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan before the Security Council last week," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Syria has not entered into a civil war, the regime and an opposition group said on Wednesday in response to the U.N. peacekeeping chief's statement to the contrary.

"This announcement makes the killer and the victim equal and ignores all the massacres committed by the Assad regime," the Syrian Revolution General Commission said, adding that people in the country "are only asking for freedom and dignity."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday accused the United States of supplying weapons to Syria's rebels, worsening the conflict engulfing Moscow's allied regime in Damascus.

Russia was supplying "anti-air defense systems" to Damascus in a deal that "in no way violates international laws," Lavrov told a news conference during a brief visit to Iran.

Russia's arms export agency said Wednesday its deliveries to Syria were in line with U.N. regulations but declined to comment specifically on U.S. claims that it was sending attack helicopters to the regime.

Rosoboronexport "does not supply weapons and military technology in contradiction with U.N. Security Council security requirements and other international agreements," an agency spokesman told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

China said Wednesday the situation in Syria had reached a "critical juncture" and expressed its "great concern", as a U.N. official said the country was now in a full-scale civil war.

World powers are groping to find a way to end the bloodshed in Syria with the toll growing daily despite a ceasefire that should have gone into effect from April 12, and there are reports of children being used as human shields.

Syria's northwest region of al-Haffe has been "cleansed" of terrorists and "calm has been restored" in the area, the official SANA news agency quoted officials as saying on Wednesday.

"Security and calm were restored in the area of al-Haffe (in Latakia province), which was cleansed after armed terrorist groups assaulted citizens and vandalized and burned a number of public and private properties," the agency said.

Syrian security forces infiltrated the outskirts of the eastern town of Arsal on Wednesday and kidnapped a Lebanese man identified as Mohammed Khaled al-Hujairi.

He was soon released by the Syrian forces and handed over to the Lebanese army, his cousin Mohammed Hassan al-Hujairi revealed to Agence France Presse.

President Michel Suleiman expressed contentment on Wednesday on the “positive” outcome of the resumption of the national dialogue between Lebanese leaders.

“We are seeking consensus between us… It’s normal to have different opinions concerning the results of the first session,” Suleiman said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.