France and other Security Council members will examine steps to take following the suspension of the U.N.'s monitoring mission in Syria after its head briefs them on Tuesday, the French foreign ministry said.

"Major-General (Robert) Mood, the head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, will brief the Security Council on Tuesday following the suspension of the observer mission," ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said on Monday.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr arrived in Libya on Monday to press for the release of an International Criminal Court team being held after meeting the son of slain strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Carr is expected to seek the release of the ICC delegation including Australian Melinda Taylor and colleagues from Lebanon, Russia and Spain, who were detained on June 7 as they helped Seif al-Islam choose a defense lawyer.

Egypt's ruling military pledged again on Monday to hand power to the winner of this weekend's election by June 30 and said he would enjoy full presidential powers.

The military council will transfer power to the new president, who will swear his oath before the constitutional court by "June 30, this month," Mahmduh Shahin, one of the ruling generals, said at a news conference.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday blasted Egypt over a "disturbing deterioration" in its security control over the lawless Sinai peninsula after a deadly border attack killed an Israeli civilian.

And he urged Egypt's incoming leadership to "take responsibility" for security in the strife-torn peninsula which shares a 240-kilometer (150-mile) border with Israel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Jordan on June 26 for talks with King Abdullah II on Arab uprisings as well as regional peace efforts, the palace said on Monday.

"Putin will start a one-day visit to Jordan on June 26, during which he will discuss with the king political changes and developments in the Middle East as well as efforts to achieve peace there," the palace said, indicating that the two leaders will discuss Arab uprisings and Mideast peace efforts.

Those responsible for attacks on U.N. observers in Syria must be brought to justice, U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said Monday.

"We must make our utmost possible efforts to ensure accountability for all perpetrators, including those who have attacked U.N. observers in Syria," Pillay told a meeting of the Human Rights Council.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on north Gaza on Monday, medics said, just hours after gunmen mounted a deadly ambush on the Egyptian border, killing an Israeli.

"Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a group of people east of Beit Hanun," said Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run emergency services.

Russia is preparing to send two amphibious assault ships to the Syrian port of Tartus where Moscow operates a strategic naval base to ensure safety of its nationals, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.

"Two major amphibious ships -- The Nikolai Filchenkov and The Tsezar Kunikov -- are preparing to be dispatched to Tartus outside of their schedule," the Russian news agency quoted an unidentified officer from the Russian naval headquarters as saying.

Syrian forces pounded Homs on Monday as they pressed their campaign against rebel strongholds in the city, while 34 people were killed across the strife-torn country, a watchdog said.

Monday's casualties come a day after 67 people were killed nationwide, including 15 in Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A suicide bomber killed on Monday Yemen's southern army commander, General Salem Ali Qoton, in an attack in the port city of Aden, a medical official told Agence France Presse.

"General Qoton was killed and four others were wounded in a suicide attack," near his home in the Mansoura neighborhood of Aden, the medic said.