President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday called on the Arab states to “share the burden” of hosting the Syrian refugees and urged them to seek the release of nine Lebanese pilgrims abducted by an armed group in the Syrian town of Aazaz.

“The number of Syrian refugees has surged and it is now equivalent to one quarter of Lebanon's population. Although the Lebanese state has decided not to close the border, the situations indicate that the security problems will increase and this requires a serious discussion in order to find a solution to this aggravating problem in a country based on delicate checks and balances,” Suleiman said in his address at the Arab Summit in Doha.

Arab League leaders gathered for an annual summit in Doha on Tuesday gave member states the "right" to offer Syrians all means of self-defense, including arms supplies.

The Arab summit affirms the "right of every state to offer all forms of self-defense, including military, to support the resistance of the Syrian people and the Free Syrian Army," a resolution said.

A suicide bombing in northern Damascus on Tuesday killed three people and wounded several others, state news agency SANA reported, hours after a girl was killed in a mortar attack in the city.

"A terrorist suicide bomber blew up a van in the east of Rukn al-Din neighborhood in Damascus," SANA said, citing an official as saying at least three people were killed.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel warned on Tuesday that the state of instability the neighboring Syria is going through might be reflected in chaos inside Lebanon, urging the deployment of international peacekeeping forces on the border.

"The prolongation of Syria's conflict will worsen the situation in Lebanon and the social and security conditions of refugees,” Gemayel said in a speech he gave on democracy in the Arab world at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington.

At least one child was killed and several others were wounded on Tuesday in a mortar attack on a compound housing several schools in central Damascus, a monitoring group and state news agency SANA said.

"A young girl was killed and several other students were injured when mortars fired by terrorists hit a school compound in the Baramkeh district of Damascus," SANA said, without giving the victim's age.

President Michel Suleiman asked Turkey on Tuesday to exert more efforts in releasing Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo province since last May, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Suleiman's request came during talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on the sidelines of the Arab League summit in Doha.

The families of the nine pilgrims abducted in Syria's Aazaz threatened on Tuesday to escalate their measures at beginning of April if the case wasn't resolved.

Protesters held banners criticizing Lebanese authorities for failing to release the men.

Damascus slammed the Syrian opposition for its "theft" of the country's Arab League seat on Wednesday, calling it a "legal, political and moral crime."

The comments, published in pro-regime newspapers, came shortly before opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib addressed an Arab League summit in Doha, as the seat was handed to the opposition.

Syrian opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib said Tuesday he had asked that NATO's Patriot missile system be extended to protect rebel zones inside the war-torn country, as he took up Syria's seat in the Arab League for the first time.

Launching into a fiery speech after leading a delegation into a Doha summit to thunderous applause from Arab leaders, Khatib also demanded that the opposition be allowed to represent Syria at the United Nations.

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Assad have seized Baba Amr in the central city of Homs, a watchdog said on Tuesday, two weeks after fighting for the flashpoint district erupted.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued the report a day after it said opposition activists had found the scorched corpses of 13 people, including five women and four children, in the village of Abel in the countryside near Homs.