Judge Walid al-Qadi succeeded on Wednesday head of the criminal court of cassation Judge Joseph Samaha to study the file of ex-Minister Michel Samaha's case.

Head of the Higher Judicial Council Judge Jean Fahd appointed al-Qadi after Judge Samaha stepped down on Monday over kinship.

Fierce battles pitting Syria's army against rebels rocked towns near Damascus on Wednesday as the regime renewed its campaign to suppress the insurgency around the capital, a watchdog said.

Army tanks pounded the rebel-held town of Daraya southwest of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while fresh clashes broke out in Irbin, northeast of the city.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Mali on the third leg of a European tour so far dominated by the Syrian conflict.

Kerry, who has hailed France's "successful" mission in Mali, will also hold talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and address a joint press conference in the afternoon.

The parties to the Syrian war came under intense international pressure Wednesday to open direct talks to end their two-year conflict, on the eve of a Rome meeting of the Friends of Syria group.

The main opposition National Coalition, meanwhile, was preparing for a weekend gathering in Istanbul to elect a prime minister and government to run parts of the country "liberated" by rebel fighters.

Speaker Nabih Berri considered on Wednesday that the security situation in the country is “intolerable,” lashing out at the security forces for failing to protect the Lebanese.

“If the security and military forces are incapable of safeguarding the Lebanese then why are we paying them their salaries? Every Lebanese then would protect himself,” Berri said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has warned that Syria's war would pull Lebanon into its “vortex” and encouraged Lebanese officials to ensure that the parliamentary elections take place on a consensual basis.

"Even tentative steps to dialogue are struggling to take root. The destructive military spiral churns more forcefully each day and threatens to pull its neighbors, most notably and worrisomely Lebanon, into its vortex," Feltman told the U.N. Security Council about the fighting between the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to topple him.

Delegates from 56 nations working on sanctions against Syria, agreed Tuesday in Sofia to ramp up political pressure against Bashar Assad's regime in what officials called their strongest declaration yet.

The "Friends of Syria" international working group on sanctions, which includes Western and Arab countries, called "on all members of the international community, especially members of the United Nations Security Council, to take swift, responsible and resolute action... with a view of depriving the regime of resources and instruments essential to its campaign of violence."

A record 150,000 people fled Syria this month to escape the worsening conflict now trapped in a "destructive military spiral," the top U.N. political official said Tuesday.

U.N. under secretary general Jeffrey Feltman also pointedly told the U.N. Security Council that abuses committed by President Bashar Assad's forces were "significantly" worse than those of the opposition, even though both could face war crimes charges.

United States Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly urged on Tuesday all political factions in Lebanon to abide by the policy of disassociation towards regional events, expressing U.S. condolences for Lebanese citizens killed and injured by the “Syrian regime’s shelling of and firing upon border villages”.

“We reiterate U.S. calls for (Syrian President Bashar) Assad's regime to respect the sovereignty, independence, and stability of Lebanon,” Connelly said after meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Syrian rebels on Tuesday pushed into the outer perimeters of a police academy in the northern province of Aleppo after a fierce two-day siege in which more than 70 combatants were killed, a watchdog said.

Regime forces retaliated with air strikes on rebels around the school, located near the town of Khan Assal, but were unable to halt their advance, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.