U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is "gravely concerned" by a step up in fighting by Syrian government forces and the opposition, his spokesman said on Monday.

Annan "is gravely concerned by the latest reports of violence coming out of Syria and the escalation of fighting by both government and opposition forces," said Ahmad Fawzi in a statement.

A British diplomatic convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Monday, wounding one person, security and diplomatic sources said.

An AFP journalist saw a white armored vehicle with a diplomatic plate parked outside the British consulate in Benghazi. There was blood on the front passenger seat, he said.

France said it would hold talks with Russia on its idea of an international Syria conference, as it urged the new head of the Syrian National Council to unite the opposition.

Paris congratulated Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda on his naming as the SNC's new leader at the weekend, calling on him to work to bring the diverse regime opponents together.

A gas pipeline in eastern Syria was damaged in a bombing on Monday, causing the leakage of 400,000 cubic meters of gas, state news agency SANA said, blaming the attack on rebels.

"An armed terrorist group on Monday bombed a pipeline owned by Al-Furat Petroleum Company that travels from (eastern) Deir Ezzor to (central) Homs. The blast occurred about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Deir Ezzor," SANA reported.

Unknown attackers vandalized Palestinian cars in east Jerusalem early on Monday, slashing tires and spraying pro-settler Hebrew graffiti on the vehicles, in the latest apparent hate crime, Israeli police said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the incident took place in the Shuafat neighborhood of east Jerusalem, and that nine cars were affected.

A court in Algiers on Monday sentenced an Algerian psychologist and expert in anti-terrorism to 20 years' jail in absentia on conviction of spying after a stay in Iraq.

Noureddine Benziane had already been sentenced to four years on the same charge on February 1, 2009, and spent two years in prison after already being held for two years in preventive detention.

Israeli authorities on Monday rounded up dozens of migrants slated for deportation, most of them Africans from South Sudan, as the government weighs tough penalties against Israelis who help illegal aliens.

The Population and Migration Authority said officers arrested 45 migrants from South Sudan, along with three Nigerians, two Ghanaians, two Chinese, one from Ivory Coast, one from the Philippines and one whose nationality is being checked.

Accused of the most barbaric massacres since the start of the revolt in Syria, the shabiha are feared militiamen and tools of a regime seeking to dissociate itself from atrocities, experts and activists say.

While there is no hard evidence of the involvement of these gunmen in the repression, United Nations officials have expressed "strong suspicions" about their role, notably in the Houla massacre that left 108 dead on May 25 and 26.

France said Monday it will hold talks with Russia on its idea of an international Syria conference including Iran and urged the new head of the Syrian National Council to unite the opposition.

"We will have new contacts with Russia this week on the subject," a ministry spokesman, Vincent Floreani, told a press conference.

A Bahraini juvenile court released on Monday a Shiite minor who is on trial for disturbing security by blocking a road outside the capital, lawyers said.

The court ordered police to handover Ali Hasan, 11, to his parents, and adjourned the trial to June 20, a lawyer said, asking not to be named.