The authorities in Syria on Monday set a deadline of 15 days for people who had committed "unlawful acts" to give themselves up, as a wave of arrests was reported across the country.

The ultimatum came as activists planned fresh anti-government demonstrations following the deaths of dozens of people in weekend protests.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will fall if it continues its bloody repression of demonstrations.

"If the regime perseveres down this path (of repression), it will fall, one day or another, but it will fall," Juppe told Europe 1 radio.

Gulf states said on Sunday they are to renew efforts to end a deadly political crisis in Yemen, after the opposition accused President Ali Abdullah Saleh of having torpedoed their bid at the weekend.

The Gulf Cooperation Council "hopes to remove all the obstacles still standing in the path of achieving a final agreement," the six-nation grouping of Yemen's oil-rich Arab neighbors said after a meeting in Riyadh.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi on Sunday called on the United States to recognize a Palestinian state, as rival Palestinian factions prepare to sign a reconciliation accord in Cairo.

Arabi urged visiting U.S. Congressman Steve Chabot to "press Congress and the American administration to recognize a Palestinian state."

Britain expelled the Libyan ambassador Sunday following attacks on the British and Italian embassies in Tripoli, saying Moammar Gadhafi's regime had failed in its duty to protect diplomatic missions.

Protesters set fire to the buildings, which are on the same street in central Tripoli, early on Sunday, Agence France Presse reported, adding that the mob at the Italian embassy ripped down the Italian flag and threw it into the street.

Egypt's military rulers warned on Sunday of strong measures against anyone inciting sectarian strife, in a bid to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power after president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February, said it was "exerting all efforts to end sectarian disagreements on the Egyptian street to protect this nation."

Syrian forces arrested more dissidents Sunday in the flashpoint southern town of Daraa and in a Damascus suburb under siege for a week, after two days of fresh bloodshed, activists said.

Anti-regime protesters appealed for new protests to launch a "week of breaking the siege" imposed on Daraa and the Douma suburb, and other towns facing deadly crackdowns.

Russia called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya Sunday and said it had "serious doubts" the West was not targeting Moammar Gadhafi and his family after Tripoli said the leader's son was killed.

"The claims of the coalition members that strikes over Libya do not have the physical destruction of Moammar Gadhafi and members of his family as their goal cause serious doubts," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Turkey is against foreign intervention in Syria and believes the unrest-hit country should solve its own problems, Anatolia news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying on Sunday.

"We should work to prevent the possibility (of a military intervention in Syria). Foreign intervention in a country like Syria with a heterogeneous social structure might cause unwanted consequences," Davutoglu said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council said on Sunday that a ceremony to finalize a Yemeni pact ending three months of protests has been cancelled after embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign.

"The ceremony that was supposed to be held (Sunday)... will not take place," said the press office of GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani, after the Gulf-brokered deal between Saleh and the opposition collapsed in tatters.