An Iraqi team held "positive" talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday in a bid to end the deadlock over an Arab League plan to stop nine months of bloodshed, its leader told Agence France Presse.

"I am on my way to Cairo for a meeting with the Arab League after holding positive talks with President Assad," National Security Adviser Falah al-Fayadh said.

The Director for United Nations and Other International Organizations in the French Foreign Ministry Nicolas de Riviere is expected to arrive in Lebanon on Monday to hold talks with Lebanese officials on the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.

French Foreign Ministry circles told the newspaper that the French diplomat will inform Lebanese officials of France’s intention to lower the number of French troops participating in the international force.

Hizbullah International Relations official Ammar Moussawi stressed on Friday that any instability in the South affects the party more than any other in Lebanon, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.

He condemned, after holding talks with French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton, the latest attack against the French unit in the United Nations interim Force in Lebanon, saying that the party places great importance on the security of the South.

France on Friday attacked Russia's proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syrian crisis as "totally unbalanced" and no immediate talks were called on the measure.

Russia, having blocked U.N. action on Syria for months, surprised other members of the 15-nation council on Thursday by putting forward a draft resolution which condemns the violence by all sides in Syria.

More than 4,500 Syrians fleeing a deadly crackdown on a revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have found shelter in Lebanon, with hundreds crossing the border in the last two weeks, the United Nations said Friday.

A report released by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said 4,510 Syrians, including women and children, had registered in northern Lebanon, up from 3,798 at the beginning of December.

A U.N. "strategy" review of its peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has been hit by several attacks in recent months, is to be completed in coming weeks, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

The spokesman denied however that it was linked to the attacks -- the latest of which saw five French peacekeepers wounded and France accusing Syria of involvement.

Western Saharan rebels have detained people implicated in the October kidnapping of three Europeans in Algeria, the APS agency quoted rebel officials as saying on Thursday.

"They were acting on behalf of a criminal organization unknown until now," Khatri Eddouh, president of the Polisario parliament, was quoted as telling journalists late Wednesday.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that the international community must now act against the Syrian government's crackdown on protests "in the name of humanity."

Ban told a press conference he has sent a U.N. Human Rights Council report on the Syrian regime's crackdown to the U.N. Security Council. This could increase pressure on the 15-nation council to act even though Russia and China vetoed a resolution on the crisis in October.

The Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for the Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, has informed the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon that, for health reasons, he does not intend to seek reappointment for a second term as Prosecutor at the end of February 2012, announced the tribunal in a statement

Bellemare stated: "It has been an honor and a privilege to seek justice for the people of Lebanon.”

The United Nations said on Wednesday it needed $7.7 billion in aid funding for 16 countries next year, with the biggest chunk to go towards helping victims in drought-devastated Horn of Africa.

Some $1.5 billion in funds are destined for Somalia, where 250,000 people are at risk of imminent death.