In the heart of Syria's rebel territory, away from the blasts and bullets of the frontlines, another struggle is playing out: one for a new justice system that could shape the future face of the country should the regime fall.

The struggle is between ex-regime judges and Islamic jihadists, and at stake is whether the courts apply a modified version of existing Syrian law, or switch to strict sharia law.

Hizbullah has been training Syrians from the Shiite sect in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley to defend themselves against the rebel Free Syrian Army, sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday.

The Syrian Shiite sources said around 1,500 men are receiving salaries and being trained in the Bekaa camps to fight in Syria and defend Shiite villages and towns against the rebels.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Tuesday his rejection of adopting the Orthodox Gathering's proposed law in the upcoming parliamentary elections, describing it as “unconstitutional”.

"We encourage the electoral subcommittee to discuss the proportional representation law,” Suleiman said in an interview with the Progressive Socialist Party-affiliated newspaper al-Anbaa, adding that this so-called Butros draft law can be modified and improved to respond to the concerns of all parties in Lebanon.

Britain will host a two-day meeting on Syria starting on Wednesday, officials said, bringing together academics and the opposition to prepare for a future without President Bashar Assad.

Experts in post-conflict stabilization will join representatives from regional Arab partners, multilateral agencies and the leadership of the opposition Syrian National Coalition for the closed-door talks, the Foreign Office announced.

Iran's nuclear ambitions and Syria's chemical weapons are the real threats facing the world, not Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

He made his remarks on a visit to the first Israeli university to be established in a settlement in the occupied territories, in sprawling Ariel in the West Bank.

Five civilians were killed in heavy fighting around a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital on Tuesday as rebels withdrew from a northwestern town after a night of clashes, a watchdog said.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi renewed a call for opposition figures to enter into a dialogue for peace offered by President Bashar Assad, despite domestic and rebel groups already rejecting the proposal.

Rebels from the jihadist al-Nusra Front executed three captured soldiers in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday.

"Al-Nusra Front executed three regime troops who were captured on January 5 from the technical services building in Deir Ezzor city," the watchdog said, adding that it was not clear when, exactly, the soldiers were killed.

Pro-Damascus Palestinian groups in Syria said on Tuesday that Yarmuk camp in the south of the capital must be "demilitarized", and called on Palestinian factions to help refugees who fled camp violence to return home.

Violence has struck several refugee camps since March 2011, when the revolt erupted in Syria, which is home to some 490,000 Palestinians.

The Ottoman-era palace now serving as their school in the rebel-held part of Aleppo's historic center may have a gracious interior court and high ceilings.

But it's the walls, the solid stone walls, that are the reason the children are taking their classes there.

A book on the Israeli secret service, Mossad, revealed the details of the assassination of Hizbullah prominent official Imad Mughnieh in Syria in 2008, reported al-Khaleej newspaper on Tuesday.

Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal dedicated a whole chapter to the assassination of the secretive Hizbullah official, who was killed in car bomb in Damascus.