Tripoli's embassy in Cairo said Saturday it was suspending work indefinitely, five days after demonstrators attacked the mission and burned the Libyan flag to protest the death of an Egyptian Copt in Libya.

A statement by the embassy said consular activity would be suspended but gave no reason for the decision which will affect Egyptians seeking to travel to neighboring Libya for work.

Syria's President Bashar Assad on Saturday called on the BRICS nations to intervene to end the conflict in his country, in a letter delivered by his adviser Bouthaina Shaaban during a trip to South Africa.

Speaking to Agence France Presse, Shaaban said she had delivered the letter to South African President Jacob Zuma ahead of the BRICS summit in South Africa on March 26.

The Syrian army has brought reinforcements to military bases on the border with Lebanon, the Turkish state-run Anadolu agency reported on Saturday and the Lebanese army assured that it has backed its forces in the region.

“Syrian military reinforcements have reached army bases overlooking Lebanese northern villages,” Anadolu said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati revealed on Saturday that the Lebanese authorities are giving “top priority” to the border situation, promising that he will follow-up on the Syrian note that threatened to bomb regions inside Lebanon.

"The army has been given directions to appropriately deal with violations,” Miqati said during security meetings he held to discuss the latest developments on the border.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat warned on Saturday that “difficult days are ahead for Lebanon”, urging political factions in the country to work on preventing sedition.

"We must all work towards preserving national unity and preventing sedition as tough days are ahead,” Jumblat said following a march organized by the PSP from the Mukhtara palace to the grave of the party's founder Kamal Jumblat on the anniversary of his assassination.

Syrian regime forces pounded parts of Damascus during the night, sending residents fleeing from the northern Barzeh district, as fighting also raged in the northern city of Aleppo, a watchdog said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime shelling continued on Saturday and also affected the Palestinian Yarmuk refugee camp along with the Jubar, Barzeh and Qaboon neighborhoods of Damascus.

Syria's regime are expanding its use of cluster munitions in its conflict with rebel forces, causing "mounting civilian causalities," Human Rights Watch warned on Saturday.

"Syria is expanding its relentless use of cluster munitions, a banned weapon, and civilians are paying the price with their lives and limbs," Steve Goose, director of HRW's arms division, said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Lebanon and Syria had no interest in turning their border area into a scene of tension as a Lebanese man was injured from renewed cross-border shelling.

“Lebanon has absolutely no interest in turning Lebanese territories to a path or base to any military action,” Mansour, who is accompanying President Michel Suleiman in his African tour, told al-Joumhouria daily published Saturday.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is collecting information on Islamic radicals in Syria for possible lethal drone strikes against them at a later stage, The Los Angeles Times reported late Friday.

Citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials, the newspaper said President Barack Obama had not authorized any drone missile strikes in Syria yet, and none were under consideration.

Arab countries on Friday tabled a resolution lamenting the spiraling violence in Syria and demanding that the regime cooperate with a U.N. probe into rights violations in the war-torn country.

Two years into the conflict that the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people and forced more than one million more to flee to neighboring countries, the draft resolution blamed Damascus for most of the violations taking place and demanded that it "cooperate fully" with a U.N. inquiry that has yet to gain access to Syria.