Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi denied that the Lebanese authorities were informed that Syrian men aged between 18- 42 were banned from entering Lebanon.

The two ministers said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Tuesday that these measures aren’t accurate.

Syrian security forces killed at least 57 people on Tuesday across Syria, amid clashes with rebel troops, including near the border with Lebanon, activists said.

Thirty-one people were killed in Idlib, including 23 who were summarily executed, 12 people were killed in Homs, eight in Hama, five in the countryside around Damascus and one in Daraa, the uprising’s Local Coordination Committees announced.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will late this week launch a new diplomatic drive aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, making visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, officials said Monday.

Clinton will meet in Riyadh with Saudi King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as well as foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia's five Gulf Arab neighbors, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

Syria has responded afresh to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on his six-point proposals to end the crisis in the country, the former U.N. chief's spokesman said Monday.

"The Syrian government has formally responded to the Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan's 6-point plan, as endorsed by the U.N. Security Council," he said in a statement. "Mr. Annan is studying it and will respond very shortly."

The general-secretariat of the opposition March 14 coalition on Monday lauded the political document issued on Sunday by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, describing it as “historic in terms of its timing and content” and saying it represents “an essential and landmark addition to the promises of the Arab Spring.”

The Brotherhood vowed on Sunday to share power and respect democracy if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled.

Norway said Monday it was closing its embassy in Damascus for security reasons, following other countries that have done the same for safety concerns or to protest against the regime's crackdown.

Several European Union countries, as well as the United States, Turkey and six Gulf state monarchies have already shut their missions.

Syrian forces clashed Monday with a group of "terrorists" seeking to enter the restive northwestern province of Idlib from Turkey, killing and wounding a number of them, official media reported.

"The authorities today foiled an attempt by a group of armed terrorists to enter Syria from Turkey, in an area between the towns of Darkush and Salqin," the official SANA news agency reported.

After decades at the center of the Arab world, Syria now sits in the dock as regional leaders meet in Baghdad this week over how to end President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown on a popular uprising.

But wide disparities among Arab chiefs' positions may hamper any hope of an aggressive resolution from the meeting, the first to be held in Iraq in more than 20 years and taking place under heavy security after deadly bombings just a week ago.

China said Monday it supports Kofi Annan's efforts to help solve the Syrian crisis, on the eve of a visit by the special envoy aimed at seeking backing for a plan to end fighting there.

Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy on Syria, is due in Beijing on Tuesday to brief Chinese leaders about his proposal after visiting Russia where President Dmitry Medvedev offered him Moscow's full support.

Syrian opposition factions will meet again in Istanbul on Tuesday to agree on common objectives for their nation's future ahead of a "Friends of Syria" conference, they said Monday.

Informal discussions have been taking place in a hotel on the outskirts of Turkey's largest city since Sunday, though talks start officially on Tuesday, said Ahmed Kamel, spokesman for the Syrian National Council.