After decades at the center of the Arab world, Syria now sits in the dock as regional leaders meet in Baghdad this week over how to end President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown on a popular uprising.

But wide disparities among Arab chiefs' positions may hamper any hope of an aggressive resolution from the meeting, the first to be held in Iraq in more than 20 years and taking place under heavy security after deadly bombings just a week ago.

China said Monday it supports Kofi Annan's efforts to help solve the Syrian crisis, on the eve of a visit by the special envoy aimed at seeking backing for a plan to end fighting there.

Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy on Syria, is due in Beijing on Tuesday to brief Chinese leaders about his proposal after visiting Russia where President Dmitry Medvedev offered him Moscow's full support.

Syrian opposition factions will meet again in Istanbul on Tuesday to agree on common objectives for their nation's future ahead of a "Friends of Syria" conference, they said Monday.

Informal discussions have been taking place in a hotel on the outskirts of Turkey's largest city since Sunday, though talks start officially on Tuesday, said Ahmed Kamel, spokesman for the Syrian National Council.

Nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews believe that the consequences for the Jewish state of a nuclear-armed Iran would be worse than those of an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic, a poll showed on Monday.

The poll, published in Haaretz newspaper, found that 65 percent of Jewish Israelis agreed with the statement that "the price Israel would have to pay for living with the threat of an Iranian bomb would be greater than the price it would pay for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities."

Former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, a stalwart of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime, could run for president in upcoming elections, local press reported on Monday.

"Omar Suleiman approaches the presidential battle," read the headline of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram, adding that his supporters would organize a march to his house to ask him to declare his candidacy officially.

Syrian troops shelled Khaldiyeh district in the flashpoint city of Homs early Monday after a night of nationwide protests against the regime, activists and monitors said.

Khaldiyeh, targeted in a week-long campaign to flush out regime opponents, was hit by mortar rounds that set alight houses in the neighborhood, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist group.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed Monday to support diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria and ensure a "legitimate" government there.

Syria was one of the top priority issues discussed during a 90-minute meeting between the two leaders in South Korea ahead of a nuclear summit, their final direct talks before Medvedev steps down and makes way for Vladimir Putin.

Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday because of deteriorating security conditions in Syria, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

"Activities at the Turkish embassy have been suspended from this morning," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that all diplomatic personnel have left the Syrian capital.

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood will share power and respect democracy if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, its leader said on Sunday.

"The regime is trying to show that the Muslim brotherhood are trying to control Syria alone," Mohammad Riad al-Shaqfa told a news conference in Istanbul in remarks translated into English.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Sunday that Kofi Annan represented the last chance for avoiding a civil war in Syria and offered the U.N.-Arab League envoy Moscow's full support.

Medvedev's stark message to Moscow's traditional ally came only hours after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to send "non-lethal" aid to the Syrian rebels and new waves of violence swept the battle-scarred country.