Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hoped on Monday that the government would tackle the people’s concerns without preconditions.

He urged in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anabaa magazine political powers to exercise “some humility” in tackling pending issues at cabinet.

More than 11,100 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest in Syria, including 55 since a U.N.-backed ceasefire took effect four days ago, a monitoring group said on Monday.

The death toll of 11,117 is 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunmen, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged "maximum restraint" by the Syrian regime and cooperation from the opposition Monday as U.N. military observers began to monitor a fragile ceasefire.

"It is very important that the cessation of violence must continue," he said at a news conference in Brussels. "The Syrian authorities must exercise maximum restraint" and "the opposition forces should also fully cooperate."

A Syrian rights activist expressed alarm on Monday after 42 protesters among 500 people holding a candle-lit vigil last week outside parliament demanding an end to killings were arrested, some violently.

A group of youths carrying candles staged the sit-in on Thursday in front of the parliament building in Damascus, "demanding an end to the killings," said Anwar Bunni, who heads the Center for Legal Research and Studies.

Syrian forces were locked in fierce gunfights Monday with rebels in one city and shelled another, as the U.N. chief urged "maximum restraint" after the arrival of observers to oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces killed at least 45 civilians and were fighting rebels at Idlib in the northwest, while also shelling the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Miqati have been informed about the frustration of Syrian authorities from their condemnation of the killing of a Lebanese cameraman ahead of an investigation into the incident, ministerial sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Monday that Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali and the head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, Nasri Khoury, informed both Suleiman and Miqati about the disappointment of the Damascus regime.

The first international observers tasked with monitoring a shaky U.N.-backed ceasefire arrived Sunday in Syria, where regime forces pounded a rebel city.

"They've arrived and they will start work tomorrow morning," said Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department announcing that six observers were now in Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will visit ally China at an unspecified date to discuss the mission of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan who designed the ongoing fragile ceasefire in the country, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported on Sunday.

SANA said Muallem would go to China on a two-day visit at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern on Sunday over the Syrian regime's shelling of the central city of Homs and urged the government to do everything to maintain a fragile ceasefire.

"I am very much concerned about what has happened since yesterday and today," Ban said after talks with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo in Brussels.

Syria warned on Sunday that its forces will respond to "intensified" rebel attacks, even as U.N. military observers were headed for the unrest-hit country to monitor a shaky ceasefire.

"Armed terrorist groups have intensified their attacks in a hysterical way against the army, law enforcement forces, and civilians, in conjunction with the approval of the U.N. Security Council resolution to send monitors to Syria," a military official said, quoted by state television.