CIA chief David Petraeus met Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for closed-door talks focusing on the crisis across the border in Syria.

Petraeus, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, also discussed the latest developments in neighboring Iran and efforts to counter Kurdish rebels attacking Turkey from safe havens in northern Iraq, said NTV television channel.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Tuesday called for an international probe into "crimes" committed against civilians in Syria, particularly in the flashpoint provinces of Homs and Idlib.

"Media reports about the horrible pictures concerning crimes committed against innocent civilians in Homs and Idlib and other parts of Syria can be described as crimes against humanity," Arabi said in a statement.

The U.N. human rights office will send observers to Syria's neighboring countries to collect evidence and document atrocities in the strife-torn state, the deputy rights commissioner said Tuesday.

"We will be sending monitors for information collection and documentation of the violations and atrocities in the border areas in the neighboring countries later this week," said Kang Kyung-wha, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on Tuesday setting May 7 as the date for parliamentary elections that were delayed last year, the state news agency SANA reported.

The vote is part of a raft of reforms announced by Assad in a bid to calm a year-long uprising against his regime that began with democracy protests.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi condemned on Tuesday the violence in Syria and called for the implementation of international resolutions to resolve the controversy on Hizbullah’s arms.

In remarks to al-Jazeera satellite channel during his visit to Doha, al-Rahi said violence in Syria was condemned “whether it was carried out by the regime or the people or armed men.”

Russia said Tuesday it will press Syria to accept international monitors who could observe the implementation of a "simultaneous" ceasefire between government troops and rebels.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was discussing the proposal with both the Arab League countries and at the United Nations, where the Security Council debated the crisis on Monday.

Syria has planted landmines near its borders with Lebanon and Turkey, along routes used by refugees fleeing the strife-torn country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged on Tuesday.

"The Syrian regime is trying to prevent people from going in and from fleeing the country," said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the group's Middle East and North Africa division.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a Saudi who killed a man in a tribal feud as well as a Syrian drug smuggler, the ministry of interior announced.

"Humam Eid al-Kindar, a Syrian, was arrested for smuggling 169,000 banned pills," state news agency SPA quoted a ministry statement as saying.

Syrian military forces have recaptured the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib along the border with Turkey, a major base that army defectors had held for months, a pro-government newspaper reported Tuesday.

Fresh from a month long campaign that drove rebels out of another key base in central Homs, President Bashar Assad's forces launched a siege on the city of Idlib three days ago. The city had been under control of hundreds of fighters for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

President Michel Suleiman and Speaker Nabih Berri are exerting efforts to make Beirut a permanent base for dialogue among religions and different confessions, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The two tackled the measures to be taken concerning the matter during a meeting on Monday at the Baabda Palace.