Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is due to make a speech on Monday on developments in his country which has been gripped by four months of anti-regime protests, the official SANA news agency reported.

"President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a speech at noon tomorrow concerning developments in Syria," SANA said in a terse dispatch late on Sunday. It gave no further details.

Screen idol Angelina Jolie Friday met thousands of Syrians sheltered in camps in Turkey as other refugees began a hunger strike against curbs imposed by Turkish authorities.

The refugees in the Yayladagi camp began the protest after Friday prayers, hours before Jolie's visit as ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees at another camp, a source from a Syrian rights group said.

The European Union on Thursday began work to toughen sanctions against Syria, looking at adding firms and a dozen people to a blacklist which already includes President Bashar al-Assad and key allies.

Several diplomatic sources said experts from the 27-nation bloc were discussing ways Thursday of "widening sanctions" against Damascus.

Renowned Syrian poet and intellectual Adonis urged President Bashar al-Assad to end his crackdown on popular protests and cede power to his people, in an open letter published on Tuesday.

"The Socialist Baath Party has not remained in power this long because of the strength of its ideology, but because of the power of its iron fist," wrote the French-based Adonis, winner of this year's prestigious Goethe Prize and one of the most popular poets and essayists in the Arab world.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused Iran of backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's "vicious assaults" against pro-democracy protesters.

"Iran is supporting the Assad regime’s vicious assaults on peaceful protesters and military actions against its own cities," Clinton said, comparing its response to Iran's crackdown on pro-reform protests in 2009.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday telephoned President Michel Suleiman to congratulate him on the formation of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Miqati after nearly five months of wrangling, Suleiman's office said.

For his part, Suleiman hoped “calm and stability will be restored in Syria in the nearest time.”

The Syrian army's operations in the north of country makes a U.N. Security Council resolution all the more pressing, Germany said on Sunday.

"The dangerous situation makes a clear reaction from the U.N. Security Council all the more urgent," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, whose country currently holds a non-permanent seat on the council, said in a statement.

Syrian troops launched Friday a long-feared crackdown in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour, as at least 22 civilians were shot dead by security forces when thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Syria under the slogan "Friday of the Tribes."

Protesters poured on to the streets of main towns and cities after the weekly Muslim main prayers, many chanting slogans against President Bashar al-Assad and in support of residents of Jisr al-Shughour.

Britain said Thursday it stood by allegations that Iran is helping Syria violently crush protests, after the British envoy in Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry over the claims.

Iranian state television earlier reported that officials had told British Charge d'Affaires Jane Marriott that the comments by Foreign Minister William Hague on Tuesday were "based on a series of lies."

Russia on Thursday said it opposed the U.N. Security Council adopting any resolution on Syria, risking a major dispute with the West over the response to the crackdown on Syrian protestors.

"Russia is against any resolution of the U.N. Security Council on Syria and this has been stated more than once at presidential level," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.