The Red Cross chief arrived in Syria on Saturday for talks with President Bashar Assad on access to prisoners and areas worst hit by a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, his organization said.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, flew in for a two-day visit and will also meet Prime Minister Adel Safar and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, ICRC delegation chief in Damascus Marianne Gasser told Agence France Presse.

A special envoy for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Tripoli on Saturday, as the international body stepped up efforts to put Libya on a path towards democracy.

Ian Martin landed at a military airport in the capital, as Ban said the world body was ready to assist in re-establishing security after the nearly seven-month uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.

The death toll from Syrian security force action against anti-government protests on Friday has risen to 21, activists said as a European Union oil embargo went into effect on Saturday.

"The number of civilians killed over the past 24 hours has reached 21 -- nine in the Damascus area, nine in the (central) province of Homs and three in Deir Ezzor" in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Iranian shelling during a campaign against Kurdish rebels killed a shepherd and damaged farms and houses in north Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Saturday, local officials said.

"A Kurdish shepherd, Bassem Farman Mohammed, was killed by Iranian shelling of the border area that began at about 8:30 am (0530 GMT)," said Maqdid Aref Ahmed, mayor of the Haj Omran district of Arbil province.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said Russia had invited members of Libya's transitional government to Moscow for energy talks, the Interfax news agency reported.

"They suggested holding meetings. We invited representatives to Moscow on their request. We will discuss all this with them," Lavrov was quoted as telling journalists at a regional summit in Dushanbe.

Russia disapproves of the European Union oil embargo imposed on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported.

"We have always said that unilateral sanctions will do no good. This destroys a partnership approach to any crisis," Lavrov was quoted as telling journalists at a regional summit in Dushanbe.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon Saturday said he sincerely hoped that Israel and Turkey could improve ties, saying both states were critical to improving stability in the Middle East.

"I sincerely hope that Israel and Turkey will improve their relationship," Ban told reporters in Canberra after Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador to Ankara and suspended all military ties with its one-time ally.

The U.N. nuclear agency said Wednesday it is "increasingly concerned" about a stream of intelligence information suggesting that Iran continues to work secretly on developing a nuclear payload for a missile and other components of a nuclear weapons program.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said "many member states" are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, "extensive and comprehensive."

Israel will not apologize for its deadly 2010 raid on a Turkish-led flotilla of Gaza aid ships, an Israeli diplomatic source said Friday after a U.N. report accused the Jewish state of using excessive force.

"Israel once again expresses its regrets for the loss of human life but there will be no apology for this operation," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

President Bashar Assad's regime faced fresh European Union sanctions targeting its oil exports Friday as ministers from the 27-nation bloc gathered in Poland to discuss the turmoil in Syria.

The sanctions "will go straight to the heart of the regime", said Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal.