Turkey plans to bypass Syria for regional trade if conditions in the neighboring country deteriorate, the country's transport minister said on Tuesday.

"If conditions aggravate in Syria, we are planning to shift (road) transport to Iraq by opening new gates," Transport Minister Binali Yildirim was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The Arab League has offered to review its sanctions on Syria if Damascus agrees to a plan to send observers to the restive country, a league official told Agence France Presse on Monday.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has also indicated that the 22-member organization, which agreed a raft of sanctions on Sunday, would be willing to slightly modify the observers' mission.

The United States and the European Union on Monday called on the Syrian government "to end violence immediately" in a joint statement issued after White House talks.

"We call on the Syrian government to end violence immediately, permit the immediate entry of human rights observers and international journalists, and allow for a peaceful and democratic transition," the statement said.

Syrian regime forces and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed nine civilians across the country on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Among the dead were six civilians killed in the flashpoint central province of Homs, one in Hama and two cut down by powerful machineguns in Rankuss near Damascus, said the London-based Observatory.

An Iraqi member of parliament was wounded and at least two other people killed on Monday in a mortar attack near parliament in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, an MP and security officials said.

"A mortar round landed near parliament's car park. One colleague, (MP) Muayid al-Tayyeb, was wounded," MP Ali al-Shila told Agence France Presse.

Five Emirati Internet activists, jailed for up to three years on charges including insulting the Gulf state's leaders, have been pardoned, their lawyer said on Monday.

"An official has informed me that a presidential pardon has been issued to release them," Mohammed al-Roken told Agence France Presse a day after the five activists were sentenced by the Federal Supreme Court.

Syria's military and security forces have committed crimes against humanity in their deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters, U.N.-appointed investigators said on Monday.

State forces have murdered, raped and tortured demonstrators since the beginning of protests in March this year, according to evidence gathered by the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Monday hit out at the Arab League for the treatment it has meted out to Damascus, accusing it of ignoring the presence of "terrorists" in the country and prematurely imposing economic sanctions.

Muallem made the accusation at a news conference at which gruesome video footage was shown of what was described as a "mass grave of security force martyrs" that the authorities had discovered.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday that Israel's settlement building on Palestinian land posed a "serious obstacle" to peace efforts, the palace said.

"Israel must stop unilateral measures, particularly settlement building, which is a serious obstacle to peace efforts," the king told Peres, who was in Amman on a brief and previously unannounced visit.

The government of oil-rich Kuwait resigned on Monday following a bitter dispute with opposition MPs, lawmaker Khaled al-Sultan said.

"The Kuwaiti cabinet has resigned and the resignation has been accepted by the emir," the Islamist opposition MP told reporters outside parliament.