U.S.-made Patriot missiles will not be deployed right at Turkey's volatile border with Syria but rather a short distance away, a move to reassure Russia that they are only for defense purposes, a diplomatic source said on Monday.

"We want to keep the missiles away from the border in order not to cause any misunderstanding with Russia and to make it clear that their deployment is purely to defend Turkish territory," he said.

EU foreign ministers Monday met the head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition which several believe should be recognized as the legitimate replacement for President Bashar Assad.

Welcoming Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib "is a clear signal of how the status of the Syrian coalition is being reviewed," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said as he went into a meeting with his EU colleagues at which the bloody conflict in Syria is a major talking point.

In the Old City district of Damascus, the Greek Orthodox Church of Syria held a funeral on Monday for Ignatius IV Hazim, patriarch of Antioch and All the East.

The ceremony was attended by a large number of religious leaders of several faiths, including Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, as well as government officials.

The European Union, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, said at the award ceremony Monday that the conflict in Syria was "a stain" on the world's conscience.

"Let me say it from here today," said European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. "The current situation in Syria is a stain on the world's conscience and the international community has a moral duty to address it."

Germany on Monday expelled four employees of the Syrian embassy in Berlin, the foreign minister said, as part of moves to sharply curb ties to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"We are sending a clear message with the expulsion of four Syrian embassy staff that we are reducing relations with the Assad regime to an absolute minimum," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement.

General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi requested on Monday the recordings of interviews and a press conference conducted by Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr in recent weeks, reported the National News Agency.

He ordered the recording of an interview he gave to al-Jadeed television on Sunday, a press conference broadcast on Future TV on Thursday, and the leaked audiotape with a Syrian rebel aired by OTV on November 29.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr completed on Monday his assessment of the case of former Minister Michel Samaha, requesting that the investigation expand to include the questioning of Syrian officials, reported the National News Agency.

Saqr requested the questioning of Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk and a colonel identified only as Adnan as suspects in the case.

The Syrian military carried out an air strike on suburbs of the capital as rebels clashed on the ground with soldiers on Monday, a monitoring group said.

"A fighter bomber carried out a raid on Daraya as rebels and soldiers fought on the ground, while artillery bombed Moadamiyet al-Sham," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, referring to two towns south of Damascus.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr stressed that the abductors of nine Lebanese pilgrims in Syria are offering a deal to free the men in exchange for the release of Syrian political prisoners as media reports said on Monday that Hizbullah allegedly has set up a jail in the Bekaa for Syrians infiltrating the country.

Saqr said during an interview with al-Jadeed channel on Sunday night that the kidnappers of the Lebanese men, who were abducted on May 22 in Syria, demand the release of all Syrian political prisoners in Damascus and in Lebanon to free the pilgrims.

Israel's ambassador to the U.S. has warned that any possible transfer from the Syrian regime of chemical weapons to Hizbullah would be a "game-changer," and said that would be a "red line" for the Jewish state.

"Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Hizbullah's hands for example -- that would be a game-changer for us," Ambassador Michael Oren told Fox News Sunday.