Syria's state media said Monday that government troops repulsed a rebel attack on a police school in the northern city of Aleppo, one day after President Bashar Assad called on Syrians to fight an opposition driven by what he characterized as religious extremists.

The official SANA news agency said regime forces killed and wounded members of a "terrorist group" in the fighting late Sunday, but did not provide a number. The government and the pro-regime media refer to the rebels seeking to topple Assad as terrorists.

Some 5,000 Hizbullah members have been fighting alongside Syrian regime troops against rebels in the restive suburbs of Damascus, the Saudi al-Watan daily reported.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the fighters crossed the border into Syria last month.

Iran on Monday threw its weight behind a plan outlined by Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the civil war in his country, reiterating Tehran's solid support for its most important regional ally.

"The Islamic republic... supports President Bashar Assad's initiative for a comprehensive solution to the country's crisis," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a statement on his ministry website.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi told CNN Sunday he backs Syrian calls for Bashar Assad to be tried for war crimes, and predicted Assad's regime would fall in the country's bloody civil war.

"The Syrian people, through their revolution, and through the movement will, when the bloodshed stops, move to a new stage where they will have an independent parliament and the government of their choosing," Morsi said, according to excerpts released by the network.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's road map to end the civil war ravaging his country is "detached from reality" and he should step down, the U.S. State Department said Sunday.

Assad's speech "is yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition. His initiative is detached from reality," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad accused Palestinian groups he did not identify on Sunday of treating the country like a "hotel", in his first public speech in seven months.

Assad praised every "honorable Palestinian in Syria who has served (the country's interests alongside) his Syrian brother and not treated Syria like a hotel, leaving it when circumstances become difficult."

The European Union reiterated Sunday that President Basahar Assad must step aside to allow a political settlement after the Syrian leader called for a national dialogue in a much-awaited speech in Damascus.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a short statement: "We will look carefully if there is anything new in the speech but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition."

Britain denounced President Bashar Assad's speech on Sunday calling for a conference of national dialogue to end the Syrian conflict as "beyond hypocritical," as Germany said the address offered "no new insights."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's first speech to the nation since June was full of "empty promises" and would "fool no-one".

The opposition Syrian National Coalition rejects a reconciliation plan outlined by President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Sunday, spokesman Walid al-Bunni told Agence France Presse by phone.

"We said at the founding of the National Coalition that we want a political solution, but ... there are now over 60,000 martyrs. The Syrians did not make all those sacrifices in order to bolster this tyrannical regime," he said.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour was informed on Sunday of the Arab League's agreement to hold a meeting on the case of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

The emergency meeting, made at Lebanon's request, will be held on January 13 and will include Arab foreign ministers.