Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad may be encouraging unrest on the Israel-Syria frontier in a futile effort to save his regime.

"We have no choice, we have to defend our border and Assad, in my opinion will fall in the end," said Barak a day after hundreds of protesters from Syria tried to cross into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called Monday on all parties in the Arab-Israeli conflict to exercise "maximum restraint" and expressed "deep concern" about the shooting on the Golan Heights.

"The secretary-general regrets the loss of life, and extends his condolences to the families of the victims," said statement by Ban's spokesman.

The U.N. atomic watchdog opens a week-long meeting here Monday, with the United States and its western allies looking to pass a resolution against Syria over its alleged illicit nuclear activity.

The traditional June session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors has a heavy agenda, ranging from the upcoming two-year budget to the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Some 700 Syrians and Lebanese staged a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday to show their support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian residents of Lebanon organized the demonstration in the southern suburb of Hay al-Sellum, a bastion of Hizbullah, to display their support for Assad and his late father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.

Thousands-strong funeral processions filed out of mosques and past closed shops in the central Syrian city of Hama on Saturday, as mourners buried dozens of protesters shot dead by security forces a day before.

A Syrian human rights activist increased Friday's death toll among protesters to 63, up from an initial count of 48. Most of the dead were killed in Hama after troops opened fire on crowds.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed alarm at the heightened Syrian government crackdown on protests and said there were now more than 1,000 dead.

"The secretary general is alarmed at the escalation of violence in Syria, which has reportedly left at least 70 killed over the past week alone, bringing the total casualties since mid-March to over 1,000 dead, many more injured and thousands arrested," said a U.N. spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci.

Syrian security forces shot dead at least 25 people while dispersing tens of thousands of demonstrators in the central city of Hama on Friday, activists said, as anti-regime protests spread to Damascus.

Activists in the city told Agence France Presse by telephone that dozens of other people were wounded.

Russia Thursday warned Syria's opposition to President Bashar al-Assad against destabilizing the country and told the West not to provoke the situation for the sake of "regime change".

Syrian opposition groups were meeting in Turkey to discuss plans to support the revolt against Assad's regime, dismissing his calls for dialogue as a belated move.

Syrian opposition groups called Thursday for President Bashar al-Assad's immediate resignation, in a joint declaration at the end of a two-day meeting in Turkey.

The statement, read out in Arabic in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, urged the "immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad from all functions he occupies" and asked him to "leave his powers to a vice-president," without specifying whom it was referring to.

Security forces armed with heavy machine-guns shot dead 15 civilians in Rastan in the Homs region of central Syria on Thursday, a human rights activist said.

"Fifteen civilians were killed by heavy machine-gun fire in the town," the activist said, adding he had a list of the names. Security forces had sealed off the town, cutting off outside aid.