Embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday that his country, in the grips of an anti-regime uprising now in its 16th month, is in a "real situation of war."

"We are witnessing a real situation of war," state news agency SANA quoted him as telling a meeting of the new Syrian cabinet.

The former chief of the main opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, told Agence France Presse he visited Syria for a few hours on Tuesday to "boost the morale" of rebels.

Ghalioun, a senior SNC executive board member, spoke to AFP in Beirut by telephone after his first visit to Syria in more than two years, and said he entered the country secretly and had "discussions with revolutionaries."

The United States said Tuesday that a "desperate" President Bashar Assad was slowly losing his grip on power, citing defections and fighting raging increasingly close to Damascus.

Washington offered new support to its NATO ally Turkey after Syrian forces shot down one of its fighter planes and also pushed back on Russia's insistence that Iran should take part in a planned international conference on Syria.

The United Nations mission in Syria will remain suspended because conflict between government and opposition forces is intensifying, a top U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

And U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has still not secured agreement on a political transition plan that all the major powers can back so that an international meeting on the conflict can go ahead this week, diplomats said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has agreed to attend an international meeting on the Syria conflict in Geneva on Saturday, Russia's U.N. envoy said Tuesday.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan wants to hold the meeting of the major powers in Geneva in a final bid to get agreement on a political transition plan for Syria.

Russia on Tuesday said its regional ally Syria's downing of a Turkish jet should not be viewed as a provocation and urged all nations to tone down their rhetoric over the incident.

"We believe it is important that the incident is not viewed as a provocation or an intentional action, and that it does not lead to destabilizing the situation," the foreign ministry said in its first comment on Friday's Phantom 4 jet downing.

Egypt's administrative court suspended on Tuesday a justice ministry decision to allow the ruling military powers to arrest civilians, a judicial source said.

The court took the decision after reviewing an appeal filed by 17 rights groups against the controversial decree passed on June 13.

Israeli military police have arrested 15 people, most of them soldiers, accused of helping smuggle drugs from Egypt's Sinai peninsula across the southern Israeli border, the army said on Monday.

The military's website described the affair as "one the biggest ever in terms of the quantity of hard drugs."

Iraq's interior ministry has given dozens of media outlets 45 days to comply with Communications and Media Commission (CMC) regulations over licenses, or they will face "legal procedures."

"The ministry calls on the officials of these institutions to (work with) the Communications and Media Commission during a period of 45 days from the date of issuing this statement," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was to hold talks Tuesday with Jordan's King Abdullah II as part of a Middle East tour aimed at boosting Moscow regional role.

Putin, who arrived in Jordan from the occupied West bank, will meet with the king on the shores of Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley, officials said.