President Bashar Assad made a rare public appearance on Wednesday, vowing to defeat a "conspiracy" against Syria a day after he blamed foreign interests for stoking months of deadly violence.

"Without a doubt we will defeat the conspiracy, which is nearing its end and will also be the end for (the conspirators) and their plans," Assad told tens of thousands of cheering supporters in the capital's central Omayyad Square.

An Arab League observer in unrest-swept Syria said Wednesday he has quit the mission, accusing the regime of committing a series of war crimes against its people and of duping his colleagues.

"I withdrew from the Arab observers mission because I found myself serving the regime, and not part of an independent observer group," Anwar Malek told the Doha-based news channel Al-Jazeera.

Cypriot authorities released on Wednesday a cargo ship carrying tons of munitions after receiving confirmation the vessel would not proceed to Syria as originally scheduled.

The ship called into Limassol port for refueling on Tuesday following bad weather, said government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou.

The Lebanese army intelligence has arrested a group of Syrian and Lebanese men at a checkpoint that lies between Akkar and Hermel, MP Moeen al-Merehbi told Naharnet on Wednesday.

The Akkar lawmaker said the arrest was made at al-Rouwayma checkpoint on Tuesday as the men were heading to Syria through the eastern border town of Arsal following their hospitalization in northern Lebanon.

Hundreds of Syrian and international activists will try to cross into Syria from Turkey and Jordan on Thursday in a bid to take humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, various sources said.

"Our aim is ... to deliver humanitarian aid to the families in the afflicted areas that suffer from daily brutal bombing and totally unacceptable living conditions," said a statement posted on the website of the group called "Freedom Convoy".

Four hundred people have been killed in Syria since Arab League monitors started a monitoring mission on December 26, and 40 people are being killed each day, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Tuesday.

U.N. assistant secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe gave the new casualty figure in a closed meeting of the 15-member Council, according to envoys.

Germany on Tuesday led European calls for "serious negotiations" on a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria as a top U.N. official gave a briefing on efforts to end the deadly crackdown on protests.

Germany's U.N. envoy Peter Wittig said Russia's reluctance to discuss a resolution condemning President Bashar al-Assad over the crackdown was "unsatisfactory".

The Syrian National Council (SNC) branded Tuesday's speech by President Bashar al-Assad an "incitement to violence," indicating "more criminal behavior" by the regime.

"There is incitement to violence, incitement to civil strife, some talks about sectarian divisions which the regime itself has fomented and encouraged," Basma Qadmani, a member of the SNC, the largest opposition umbrella group, said at a press conference in Istanbul.

The UAE's foreign minister accused the Syrian regime on Tuesday of not facilitating the job of Arab League observers, lamenting the latest reported attacks on the envoys.

"The job of the observers is getting more difficult day after day ... We do not see a commitment from the Syrian side that would allow them" do their job, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Tuesday denounced attacks on Arab observers deployed in Syria, in which some monitors were wounded, and said he was holding the government in Damascus responsible for their mission.

"The Arab League denounces the irresponsible action and acts of violence against the League's observers," Arabi said in a statement issued by his office.