U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday held "constructive" talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown, officials said.

The pair agreed that diplomatic teams from both countries would "continue to consult" on the draft in New York, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner, amid a U.S. push for passage of the resolution.

Protesters flooded towns and cities across Syria defying a brutal government crackdown on Friday to commemorate the notorious 1982 massacre in the city of Hama that killed tens of thousands.

At least 36 people were reported killed on Friday, including 11 soldiers and three army deserters, activists and a rights group said.

Two American women and their Egyptian tour guide, who were captured by armed Bedouins in the Sinai peninsula on Friday, have been released unharmed after several hours, security officials said.

The three arrived back at their hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they were met by South Sinai's governor and security chief, officials said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said time is running out for a settlement but he is not giving up, after Israeli and Palestinian leaders rejected a return to direct negotiations.

"Basically I am not disappointed, it is expected", Ban said late Thursday at the end of a three day trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories where he got little joy from political leaders and shoes hurled at him by protesters in Gaza.

Iran has its "own threats" to respond to any military attack or sanctions against its oil exports, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday.

"In response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats which will be implemented at the right time, if necessary," he said in a televised speech as he led traditional Friday prayers in Tehran.

Iran banned its citizens on Friday from travelling to Syria by road following the abduction of nearly 30 Iranians in the escalating uprising in its key Middle East ally, state media reported.

"Due to the terrorist acts against Iranian pilgrims who are taking road trips to the holy sites in Syria, from Friday and until further notice road trips to this destination are forbidden," the head of Iran's passport and immigration police, Mahmoud Sadeqi, told the official IRNA news agency.

Children as young as 13 are a particular target in the "rampant" use of torture by Syrian government forces battling opposition protests, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday.

The United Nations says hundreds of children have been killed in the crackdown over the past 10 months, and the rights group highlighted cases of children shot in their homes or on the street, or grabbed from schools.

The Iraqiya bloc sent a "positive signal" by ending its parliament boycott, and its eventual return to the cabinet depends on how Iraq's premier responds, the country's fugitive vice president told Agence France Presse.

Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, is accused of financing a death squad to target policemen, judges and officials and has been hiding out in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region since December.

Anti-regime activists have called for Syrians to take to the streets in their "millions" on Friday to commemorate 30 years since government forces killed thousands in a crackdown on the central city of Hama.

Under the slogan "Hama, forgive us," the activists appealed for "millions" of people to take part in the demonstrations in honor of those who died in the massacre ordered by the father of President Bashar Assad.

Kuwait's Islamist-led opposition has won a landslide majority in Kuwait's snap polls by securing 34 seats in the 50-member parliament, with women and liberals the big losers, results showed Friday.

Sunni Islamists, including Salafists, took 23 seats compared with just nine in the dissolved parliament, while liberals claimed only two places against five previously, according the official results.