France warned Wednesday that it may push for a resolution allowing the use of force in Syria and said it wanted U.N. monitors to deploy within a fortnight as the peace plan was "strongly compromised".

"Things are not going well, the (Kofi) Annan plan is strongly compromised but there is still a chance for this mediation, on the condition of the rapid deployment of the 300 monitors," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

At least 21 civilians and three soldiers were killed on Wednesday in violence across Syria, activists said, 13 days after a tenuous truce came into effect.

Regime forces killed six people in the northwestern province of Idlib, four in the Damascus suburbs of Harasta and Douma, four in the southern province of Daraa, three in the northern province of Aleppo, two in the central province of Hama, a person in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and another in the central province of Homs, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.

A handful of U.N. observers resumed their tour of Syrian hot spots on Wednesday as envoy Kofi Annan urged the fast deployment of the full, 300-strong mission and voiced alarm about persistent violence.

Nine civilians were reportedly killed across country, taking to nearly 300 the number of people who have died since a tenuous ceasefire went into effect on April 12.

Turkish authorities found no weapons after searching a German-owned vessel docked at a southern port last week on suspicion of smuggling arms to Syria, an official report has disclosed.

"As a result of the investigation, nothing was encountered which can be described as weapons, munitions or military materials inside any of the checked goods," according to the report which was signed by Turkish customs officials.

Syrian President Bashar Assad stressed on Tuesday that his country will deal according to its conditions with the Lebanese political powers, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“Damascus will deal according to its conditions with the Lebanese political powers,” Assad told a senior Syrian opposition figure.

Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned on Wednesday that a nuclear Iran would give itself freedom of action against Israel through Hizbullah and other militants.

That freedom might be expressed "against us, via the force Iran will project toward its clients: Hizbullah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza,” Gantz told Israeli dailies in Independence Day interviews.

Syria is still seeing "unacceptable" levels of violence, international envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, after dozens of people were killed across the country despite a ceasefire.

"The situation in Syria continues to be unacceptable," Annan told a closed-door meeting. He spoke after a car bomb rocked central Damascus, wounding three people, while nearly 60 people were killed across the country a day earlier ahead of the deployment of 300 U.N. peace observers.

A car bomb on Tuesday rocked central Damascus and 56 people were killed in fresh violence across the country, a day after nearly 60 were killed across Syria despite a hard-won ceasefire and the upcoming deployment of 300 U.N peace monitors.

Three people were wounded when the blast went off in the Marjeh district of the capital, Syrian state television reported, blaming "terrorists", the government term for rebels.

Prominent Palestinian activist and writer Salameh Kaileh was arrested overnight at his home in Damascus by Syrian authorities, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Tuesday.

"The security services entered Kaileh's home in the suburb of Barzeh at 2:00 am (2300 GMT Monday) and arrested him without explanation," said Bunni.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said on Tuesday it was boosting assistance to the population in strife-torn Syria, to reach 500,000 people in the coming weeks.

"As the conflict continues, Syrians in areas affected by the violence are struggling to feed their families and WFP is deeply concerned about the potential for food insecurity," executive director Ertharin Cousin said in a statement.