Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday that Syria has agreed to host him for a probable visit this week to the strife-torn country.

"I have been informed that Syria welcomes" the visit which would take place "probably this week," Arabi told a news conference at his pan-Arab organization’s headquarters in Cairo.

At least 24 people died in violence across Syria on Sunday, activists and state media said, as the visiting Red Cross chief sought access to those detained in five months of anti-regime protests.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said 12 people were killed in various operations by security forces across the country.

Hizbullah and Iran will not go out of their way in defending the Syrian regime given the international pressure it is being subject to and the likelihood that it will soon be overthrown, diplomatic sources told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Sunday.

They added that the international pressure on Syria to halt its crackdown against anti-regime protests is also weighing on its allies in Lebanon, especially Hizbullah.

The Red Cross chief arrived in Syria on Saturday for talks with President Bashar Assad on access to prisoners and areas worst hit by a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, his organization said.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, flew in for a two-day visit and will also meet Prime Minister Adel Safar and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, ICRC delegation chief in Damascus Marianne Gasser told Agence France Presse.

Syrian refugees fleeing the unrest in their country to Lebanese border towns since the uprising in Syria against President Bashar Assad regime reached 2600, the Central news agency reported on Saturday.

“The numbers of refugees reached 2600, distributed in areas near the border especially in Wadi Khaled,” Security forces told the news agency.

The death toll from Syrian security force action against anti-government protests on Friday has risen to 21, activists said as a European Union oil embargo went into effect on Saturday.

"The number of civilians killed over the past 24 hours has reached 21 -- nine in the Damascus area, nine in the (central) province of Homs and three in Deir Ezzor" in the east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Russia disapproves of the European Union oil embargo imposed on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported.

"We have always said that unilateral sanctions will do no good. This destroys a partnership approach to any crisis," Lavrov was quoted as telling journalists at a regional summit in Dushanbe.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly lauded Premier Najib Miqati for announcing that the Lebanese government will fund the international tribunal and rejecting to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Saturday, Connelly also praised Miqati for saying Lebanon was committed to international resolutions particularly 1701.

President Bashar Assad's regime faced fresh European Union sanctions targeting its oil exports Friday as ministers from the 27-nation bloc gathered in Poland to discuss the turmoil in Syria.

The sanctions "will go straight to the heart of the regime", said Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal.

Fourteen people were killed on Friday in demonstrations in several Syrian cities that took place under the banner of “Death Rather than Humiliation.”

Local Coordination Committees (LCC) announced via internet sites that seven people were shot dead by Syrian security forces in the region of Reef Damascus and three were killed in the province of Deir al-Zour.