Chinese state media on Saturday accused the U.S. and Europe of "harboring hegemonistic ambitions" in Syria, after Western and Arab nations ratcheted up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad at a meeting in Tunisia.

In a commentary Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said that "most of the Arab countries have begun to realize that the United States and Europe are hiding a dagger behind a smile".

Saudi Arabia's delegation on Friday walked out of the "Friends of Syria" international meeting held in Tunisia to protest what it called "the meeting's inefficiency."

“Focusing on humanitarian aid is not enough and the only solution is a consensual or forced transition of power,” head of the delegation, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

Arab and Western nations in Tunisia for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting called Friday for an immediate end to violence in the country and for new sanctions on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a final declaration, the group called for the regime to immediately end all violence to allow for humanitarian aid to be brought in.

An international conference on the crisis in Syria, which is being held in Tunisia on Friday, will reconvene in Turkey in three weeks, the opposition Syrian National Council said.

"The next meeting of the 'Friends of Syria' will be in three weeks in Istanbul," the SNC said in a brief statement.

Tunisia's court of cassation on Wednesday threw out a ruling banning pornographic websites, a judicial source and a press freedom watchdog said.

"The court quashed the first instance and appeals ruling that ordered the censorship of pornographic websites," the judicial source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Syria's opposition is expected to take part in an international conference in Tunis on Friday to which European Union and Arab League members as well as China, Russia and United States have been invited.

Speaking after a meeting of Mediterranean region foreign ministers in Rome on Monday, Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem also said the talks had agreed on the need to avoid "an Iraqi scenario" and preserve Syria's integrity.

Algeria proposed Saturday to boost cooperation with North African neighbors against terror and organized crime as the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) held its first high-level conference since 1996.

Algeria sought "true and effective Maghreb cooperation in the fields of terrorism, organized crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking and clandestine immigration," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told counterparts in Rabat.

The Syrian National Council, the largest opposition group in the strife-ridden country, will not be officially represented at a "friends of Syria" conference next week, host Tunisia said on Friday.

"There will certainly not be an official SNC representative" at the conference, Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesalem told reporters while recognizing that the topic had caused wide debate.

A Tunisian court cleared Libyan former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi on Tuesday on a charge he had crossed illegally into Tunisia as he fled Libya last year, his lawyer said.

"The court ... has acquitted al-Mahmoudi and so we are demanding his immediate release," lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid said after the hearing in the southern city of Tozeur. "There is no legal reason to keep him in prison."

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki arrived Sunday in Algeria for his first official visit, during which he is to push for a revival of the Arab Maghreb Union.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia met him at Algiers airport at the start of his two-day visit, the final stage of a regional tour during which he has been promoting the Arab Maghreb Union.