International Committee of the Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger traveled on Wednesday to Daraa to assess the humanitarian needs in the birthplace of Syria's year-long uprising, the ICRC said.

Two lorries filled with food aid and hygiene kits, as well as 500 blankets, were unloaded at Red Cross depots in Daraa ready for distribution, ICRC spokesman in Damascus Saleh Dabbakeh told Agence France Presse.

The family of Syrian dissident Shebli al-Aisamy denied on Wednesday allegations of his death.

It said in a statement: “We have confirmed reports that he was seen about a month ago in al-Mazzeh in Damascus.”

Syria's opposition will never defeat President Bashar Assad's army even if it is "armed to the teeth," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

"It is clear as day that even if the Syrian opposition is armed to the teeth, it will not be able to defeat the government's army," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying while on a visit to the ex-Soviet nation of Azerbaijan.

The cabinet failed on Tuesday to approve a request from the social affairs ministry to allocate LL100 million to provide more humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees who have fled the deadly crackdown by the regime on protestors.

“The fund that we had asked for is not for refugees but for the centers of the social affairs ministry in the area of Akkar that is exerting the essential effort in the issue of the displaced,” Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour told An Nahar daily published Wednesday.

The U.N. Security Council will have to take "very urgent and serious" action if Syria fails to meet an April 10 deadline to halt its military operations in protest cities, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said Tuesday.

U.N. Security Council members negotiated a statement backing the April 10 deadline that U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan says Syria has accepted, as fierce clashes were reported between government forces and rebels.

The United States said Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was failing to live up to pledges for a truce and warned that it will judge him by "his actions, not by his words."

Fierce clashes were reported again Tuesday in Syria despite Assad's assurances to peace envoy Kofi Annan that he would "immediately" start pulling back forces and complete a military withdrawal from urban areas by April 10.

European Parliament members visiting Lebanon on Tuesday lauded “the efforts undertaken by the Lebanese authorities, their partners, the NGOs and the local population to provide assistance” to Syrians fleeing the violence in their country to Lebanon.

The parliamentary delegation comprises Veronique de Keyser, Member of the European Parliament and Vice President for Foreign Affairs of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S & D), and Ana Gomes, Member of the European Parliament and the foreign affairs coordinator of the S & D Group.

Fierce clashes broke out between Syrian troops and rebels on Tuesday as the regime sent reinforcements into a number of hotspots despite President Bashar al-Assad's pledge to implement a peace plan.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting gripped several parts of the country including the southern province of Daraa, northwest Idlib province, Homs in central Syria and near the capital.

Syrian authorities thwarted on Monday night the infiltration of an “armed terrorist group” from Lebanon into Syria, reported SANA news agency on Tuesday.

It said that the group was attempting to enter Reef Homs in Syria from northern Lebanon.

An advance U.N. team preparing the deployment of observers in Syria is expected in Damascus within the next two days, the spokesman for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday, as Damascus pledged it will do its utmost to ensure the success of a Red Cross mission to the strife-torn country.

"We expect the U.N. advance team on the deployment of monitors to arrive in Syria in the next 48 hours. They are there to work on the modalities of the deployment of monitors," the spokesman told Agence France Presse.