British Prime Minister David Cameron counted the cost on Friday after a humiliating rejection by parliament of his call for military action on Syria, a defeat which dealt a severe blow to the "special relationship" with the United States.

Cameron suffered the worst setback of his three years in office when lawmakers he had recalled from their summer holidays voted 285 to 272 to defy the government's motion late Thursday.

The suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria demands an international response but NATO will not take part, alliance head Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Danish media on Friday.

"I see no NATO role in an international reaction to the (Syrian) regime," Rasmussen told reporters in the Danish town of Vejle, daily Politiken reported.

Strike or no strike? The uncertainties playing out on the global stage over military action in Syria were taking their toll Friday on an edgy Damascus, as a U.N. team prepared to leave the country.

"It's terrifying to stay in Damascus and wait for the strikes," said a fearful Josephine, who was planning to leave for Beirut at the weekend.

Thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated Friday in a Shiite Muslim village near the Bahraini capital, witnesses said, a day after a car bomb wounded four policemen in another Shiite town.

The Sunni-ruled kingdom has been rocked by sporadic violence since its security forces crushed a month of Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests by Shiites in 2011.

U.S. President Barack Obama was meeting top national security aides on Friday over possible missile strikes to punish Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons in a deadly attack last week.

France gave its backing to the U.S. plans after British lawmakers voted against any involvement in military action against Damascus and other close allies including Germany said they would not sign up.

Turkey said on Friday that information collected by its secret services meant there was "no doubt" that the Syrian regime was behind a chemical attack on August 21.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a press conference: "From our point of view, based on evidence gained by our intelligence services and experts... there is no doubt, it is clear the regime is responsible."

France on Friday reaffirmed its will for "strong" action against the Syrian regime, a day after the British parliament's shock rejection of military strikes -- putting it in a position to become the United States' main ally in the Syria crisis.

The situation is a far cry from a decade back when Franco-U.S. ties hit a low over differences on Iraq and then-president Jacques Chirac's opposition to the Anglo-U.S. offensive against Saddam Hussein's regime.

Egyptian police were holding three foreigners working for Al-Jazeera television's English channel for a fourth day Friday, an executive of the Qatari broadcaster told Agence France Presse.

They have also seized equipment belonging to the Qatari station's Egypt affiliate.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the Syrian crisis with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius Friday and stressed the need to support U.N. inspectors investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons, state media reported.

Wang said it had yet to be established whether chemical weapons had been used and by whom, the official Xinhua news agency said.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Friday met with U.N. ambassadors from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States after cutting short a visit to Europe over the Syria chemical weapons crisis.

Ban has been pressing U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders not to allow a military strike on Syria until U.N. experts have finished their work in the country.