Syrian forces killed 19 civilians on Sunday across the country, including six in Homs despite the presence of U.N. observers in the rebel province to pave the way for a 300-strong mission approved by the Security Council, monitors said.

Six civilians were killed in Idlib, five in rural Damascus, six in Homs and two in Daraa, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring anti-regime protests on the ground, said.

Syrian woman blogger Razan Ghazzawi was among eight Syrian activists arrested in February to be charged and brought before a military court, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Sunday.

"The eight activists will face military justice for publishing and distributing forbidden tracts under Clause 148 of the military penal code," Bunni said, adding that if convicted they could be jailed for up to five years.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Sunday cash-strapped Jordan needs help to cope with hosting tens of thousands of Syrians who have fled the unrest in their country to the neighboring kingdom.

"Jordan has always been generous to refugees. Neighboring and other friendly countries should help the kingdom cope with the Syrian refugees," UNHCR representative in Jordan, Andrew Harper, told Prime Minister Awan Khasawneh at a meeting.

U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Sunday asked the Damascus regime and the opposition to immediately halt violence and the use of heavy weapons.

"I urge all forces whether governmental, opposition or others to put down their weapons and work with the United Nations monitors to consolidate the fragile cessation of violence in all its forms," Annan said in a statement.

Two U.N. observers set up base Sunday in the restive city of Homs a day after an advance team of monitors toured flashpoint areas to assess a shaky truce, a mission spokesman told AFP.

The official, Neeraj Singh, also said other members of the eight-member U.N. team of advance observers mandated to monitor the April 12 ceasefire were pursuing field visits elsewhere in Syria on Sunday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran on Sunday for two days of meetings with Iranian leaders and senior officials on various bilateral issues, Iran's IRNA state news agency reported.

The visit notably comes ahead of an important May 23 meeting to be hosted in Baghdad between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers on Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

The rebel Free Syrian Army hailed the United Nations Security Council vote on Saturday to send 300 observers to monitor a ceasefire in Syria and said it was committed to the truce.

"We salute the dispatch of new observers," FSA spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine told Agencce France Presse through a Skype call from Homs province.

France and German welcomed the decision by the United Nations Security Council on Saturday to send U.N. observers to monitor the fragile ceasefire in Syria, warning Damascus to end the violence there.

The two countries reacted after the Council unanimously passed a resolution allowing a 300-strong ceasefire monitoring mission in Syria despite the strong doubts of many Western nations.

Two young Lebanese men who have been detained for daubing graffiti on Beirut walls in support of the uprising in neighboring Syria were released, media reports said on Saturday.

Fadi Tawfiq, a writer and rights activist, told Agence France Presse Ali Fakhri and Khodr Salameh were detained on Friday night for painting the flag used by rebels in Syria and "The revolution continues" in a district considered supportive of the Damascus regime.

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution allowing a 300-strong ceasefire monitoring mission in Syria despite the strong doubts of many Western nations.

Under U.N. resolution 2043, the unarmed military observers will be sent for an initial period of 90 days if U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon decides it is safe for them to go.