The U.N. Security Council will on Wednesday discuss a resolution proposed by European nations condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on opposition protests.

Russia and China have strongly opposed Security Council action on Syria, but Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said: "If anyone votes against that resolution, or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience."

Britain is supporting Ban Ki-moon for a second five-year term as U.N. chief, becoming the fourth permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back him, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.

"I am glad to support Ban Ki-moon in his candidacy for a second term as Secretary General of the United Nations," Cameron said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left here Wednesday for Abu Dhabi to consult with countries backing military action in Libya and looking at more ways to help the Libyan opposition.

The talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital on Thursday come after President Barack Obama said NATO's mission in Libya was forging "inexorable" advances that meant it was only a matter of time before defiant Moammar Gadhafi's departure.

Japan has frozen $4.4 billion in assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi and his entourage under the terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution, a report said Saturday.

The assets included bank savings, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported citing data of the finance ministry, without giving fuller details. A spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the report.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Wednesday demanded "more ambitious and bolder" action from Syria after President Bashar Assad decreed a general amnesty for political prisoners.

"I fear that it might already be too late," Juppe told France Culture radio after the Syrian leader announced the amnesty following two months of deadly anti-government protests.

The United States will ask the U.N. atomic watchdog to report Syria to the U.N. Security Council over its alleged illicit nuclear activity, according to a draft resolution obtained by Agence France Presse on Monday.

At a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors next week, Washington will urge member states to report Syria to the Security Council, despite an apparent pledge by Damascus to break a three-and-a-half-year silence over its alleged nuclear ambitions.

European nations on Thursday pressed a campaign to get the U.N. Security Council to warn the Syrian government that its deadly crackdown on opposition protests could be a crime against humanity.

A draft resolution distributed to the 15 council members condemns violence used by President Bashar al-Assad's regime and calls for the lifting of a weeks-long siege against the city of Daraa.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Tuesday Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s performance so far in forming a government, accusing him of wasting his time and not wanting to form the Cabinet.

He said after the FPM’s weekly meeting: “We have presented all we can to facilitate its formation, but the premier-designate does not want it to be established.”

Powerful explosions rocked Tripoli Tuesday as NATO launched its heaviest bombardment yet of the capital, while France and Britain piled pressure on Moammar Gadhafi by bringing attack helicopters into the Libya fray.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters that at least three people died and 150 were wounded in the air strikes, which he said targeted a deserted military barracks but which instead hit civilians living nearby.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said that the Lebanese government crisis isn’t witnessing any breakthrough, which is affecting the economic sector.

Williams told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Friday that the tourism season in Lebanon isn’t promising this year, hotel and flight reservations are deteriorating and most tourists come from neighboring Arab countries.