Syria condemned on Tuesday Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip that killed 25 Palestinians, calling on world powers to act urgently to put an end to them.

Syria "roundly condemns Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and urges the international community to undertake urgent steps to put an end to these activities and to sanction those responsible," said a foreign ministry statement.

France on Tuesday said it had transferred 10 million euros ($13 million) in budget assistance to the Palestinian Authority and urged the United States and Gulf countries to also send more aid.

The assistance is aimed at helping the Palestinian Authority in its "delicate financial situation", French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement.

Tunisia's Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said on Tuesday that Syria's Bashar al-Assad would not be welcome in his country, after the Tunisian president offered the Syrian leader asylum in Tunis.

"I respect our head of state but I do not want to see Assad in our country. And if I were to encounter him, I would put him in front of a court and hand him over to the Syrian people," Jebali told the website of German news weekly Der Spiegel.

The suspected arsonist behind a deadly fire at a Brussels mosque said Tuesday he set the Shiite place of worship ablaze to scare the community he blames for the violence in Syria, officials said.

Belgium's Muslim community was in shock a day after the attack that left an imam dead.

At least 48 persons were reported killed in violence across Syria on Tuesday, including 25 members of the security forces, as a pro-government daily said the regime had captured the rebel city of Idlib.

"Twelve members of the security services who headed for the town of Dael to carry out arrests were killed ... when their vehicle was ambushed by a group of armed deserters," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

CIA chief David Petraeus met Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for closed-door talks focusing on the crisis across the border in Syria.

Petraeus, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, also discussed the latest developments in neighboring Iran and efforts to counter Kurdish rebels attacking Turkey from safe havens in northern Iraq, said NTV television channel.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with support for democracy promotion groups, saying that they play a critical role despite a crackdown in Egypt.

Clinton, addressing U.S. ambassadors from around the world who are back in Washington for a group conference, said that civil society groups are vital to encouraging U.S. goals such as advancing democracy and women's participation.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Tuesday called for an international probe into "crimes" committed against civilians in Syria, particularly in the flashpoint provinces of Homs and Idlib.

"Media reports about the horrible pictures concerning crimes committed against innocent civilians in Homs and Idlib and other parts of Syria can be described as crimes against humanity," Arabi said in a statement.

The U.N. human rights office will send observers to Syria's neighboring countries to collect evidence and document atrocities in the strife-torn state, the deputy rights commissioner said Tuesday.

"We will be sending monitors for information collection and documentation of the violations and atrocities in the border areas in the neighboring countries later this week," said Kang Kyung-wha, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on Tuesday setting May 7 as the date for parliamentary elections that were delayed last year, the state news agency SANA reported.

The vote is part of a raft of reforms announced by Assad in a bid to calm a year-long uprising against his regime that began with democracy protests.