Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, back from talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, pointedly declined to say Wednesday whether Moscow asked the embattled leader to go, stressing that Syrians themselves should decide his fate.

"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," Lavrov told reporters.

Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed.

The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells was launched at daybreak and continued during the day. State television said a car bomb had ripped through the central city, killing and wounding civilians as well as security officers.

Algeria Tuesday said parliamentary seats would be increased from 389 to 462 in the general election to be held in May.

The decision was announced following a cabinet meeting headed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Russia's U.N. ambassador on Tuesday slammed efforts to "poison" relations between his country and the Arab world after Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin made the comments as he strongly rejected Arab internet reports that he had threatened the prime minister of Qatar during talks at the United Nations last week on Syria.

The United States on Tuesday voiced skepticism of promises by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia's foreign minister and said that he should instead immediately end the violence.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States would withhold judgment on Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Damascus but criticized Assad for making new pledges of domestic reforms.

A U.S. judge Tuesday set an October 22 trial date for an Iranian-American accused of plotting with senior Tehran officials to hire Mexican gangsters to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Federal Judge John Keenan rejected a request for more time by the defense lawyer for Manssor Arbabsiar, a used car salesman from Texas with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship.

Senior Republican senator John McCain urged the United States Tuesday to consider arming the opposition fighting the forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

"We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop," he told reporters.

Syria and Turkey are negotiating the conditions for the release of 49 detained Turkish intelligence officers, a radio station close to the government in Damascus said on Tuesday.

Sham FM said the officers had been detained while operating undercover, although there has been no word from Ankara on any such arrests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Syria was pressing ahead with the reform program President Bashar al-Assad had promised in a series of speeches last year and would soon announce the timetable for a referendum on a new constitution to replace the current one which enshrines the dominant role of his Baath party.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said that Assad would receive the text drawn up by an appointed panel on Wednesday.

Egypt's interior minister denied on Tuesday that police had fired birdshot at protesters in deadly clashes last week between security and demonstrators, despite testimonies from medics and witnesses.

At least 15 people have been killed in Cairo and the canal city of Suez since violence erupted near the interior ministry on Thursday sparked by deadly football-related clashes, the health ministry said.