More than 70 Syrian military officers have defected to the opposition and crossed into Turkey, an official there said on Saturday, as world leaders prepared to discuss the Syrian conflict at the G8 summit.

The defections followed a U.S. decision to give the rebels "military support" after Washington reviewed evidence showing the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons.

Turkish riot police stormed an Istanbul park Saturday, firing tear gas to evacuate protesters, just hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the occupation of the park must end, raising tensions in more than two weeks of anti-government unrest.

After using tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in Taksim Square, police entered the adjoining Gezi Park, clearing it within minutes and leaving only protesters' empty tents behind, an Agence France Presse reporter at the scene said.

Representatives from countries that support the Syrian opposition met Friday in Istanbul with rebel military chief General Selim Idriss, to discuss the possible delivery of weapons, a Syrian opposition spokesman said.

"Over the next 24 to 48 hours, there are going to be several meetings between the Syrian Military Council (SMC) and different countries to understand the needs of the SMC and to begin to really satisfy those needs," said Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Council.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday agreed to halt plans to redevelop an Istanbul park at the center of two weeks of mass anti-government unrest, in a move protesters welcomed as "positive."

It marked the first easing of tensions in the standoff, which has presented the Islamist-rooted government with the biggest challenge of its decade-long rule and earned it criticism from the West.

President Abdullah Gul downplayed Turkey's mass protests and defended riot police on Thursday, telling a Canadian daily it is "quite natural" for demonstrators to wish for a "more perfect" democracy.

Gul's comments were published in Toronto's Globe and Mail one day after two Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalists covering the protests in Istanbul's Taksim Square were briefly arrested.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday rejected European criticism of his country's handling of two weeks of deadly anti-government unrest.

"This approach is unacceptable," he said in response to a resolution by members of the European Parliament condemning the excessive use of force by police against protesters.

Turkish protesters said Thursday they would remain in Istanbul's Gezi Park despite a "last warning" by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to evacuate the green patch at the center of deadly anti-government unrest.

"We will stay in Gezi Park with all our demands and sleeping bags," Taksim Solidarity, the core group behind the campaign to save the park, said in a statement, rejecting the government's proposal to hold a referendum on the site's controversial redevelopment.

A second Turkish power-generating vessel aimed at providing an additional 85 megawatts of power was due to start operating on Wednesday but it would need several more weeks to reach Lebanon, sources said.

The sources from Karadeniz, the company that operates the ship, told al-Liwaa newspaper published Thursday that the barge needs more that four weeks to set anchor in Lebanon for technical reasons linked to the firm's base in Turkey.

The redevelopment of a small Istanbul park at the center of nationwide demonstrations could go to a referendum, the government said Wednesday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with protest leaders to defuse tensions.

"We might put it to a referendum.... In democracies only the will of the people counts," government spokesman Huseyin Celik told reporters, adding that the protesters who have been camping out in Gezi Park for nearly two weeks need to leave "as soon as possible".

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to abide by European democratic standards Wednesday as Germany and Italy warned a violent crackdown on protesters could harm Turkey's bid for membership of the bloc.

Delivering her first public statement on Turkey's troubles in a speech to the European Parliament, Ashton said Erdogan's response with protesters must be "engagement not antagonism."