Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on the formation of a national unity government, the official MENA agency reported.

The long-time rivals have been struggling to implement the terms of a reconciliation deal signed in Cairo in May, which calls for the formation of an interim government of independents to pave the way for presidential and legislative elections within a year.

The European Union is set to slap fresh sanctions on Syria, including a ban on Syrian-run cargo flights into the 27-nation bloc, EU diplomats said Wednesday.

"There will be more sanctions announced Monday" when EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels, one source said.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that dialogue on Syria was "futile", the official SPA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Russia should have "coordinated with the Arabs... before using the veto" to block a resolution on Syria in the U.N. Security Council, King Abdullah was quoted as saying.

France on Wednesday demanded access to the victims of an attack in Syria that killed a U.S. war correspondent and French photojournalist, and summoned Syria's envoy to Paris.

Syria has meanwhile denied that it was aware that the journalists had entered the country.

Russia on Wednesday expressed "serious concern" about the humanitarian situation in Syria and said it backed an International Committee of the Red Cross call for a daily two-hour truce that could provide help to civilians.

"We are seriously concerned by incoming reports about the difficult humanitarian situation in Syria," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Syria's main opposition group on Wednesday urged the international community to create "safe havens" in the country and called on Russia to force the regime to allow access for humanitarian convoys.

At a news conference in Paris, the Syrian National Council said it would attend a summit of the countries known as the "Friends of Syria" and ask for safe zones to protect civilians and allow the opposition to organize.

Two Western journalists were among 26 people killed on Wednesday as Syrian forces pounded the rebel city of Homs, activists said, while calls mounted for a truce to allow in humanitarian aid.

The latest barrage came a day after security forces killed at least 68 across the country, adding to an overall toll of 7,636 since anti-regime protests erupted last March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An Israeli committee was on Wednesday to approve construction of 500 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo and retroactively legalize more than 200 built without permits, a spokesman said.

The committee "will meet today to approve construction of 500 units," civil administration spokesman Guy Inbar told Agence France Presse.

The death toll in Syria since protests erupted against the regime of President Bashar Assad in March last year has reached 7,636, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The toll consists of 5,542 civilians, 1,692 soldiers and police, and some 400 rebel troops, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told Agence France Presse.

An international rights group urged the United States, where Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh is staying, to probe his forces' deadly crackdown on opponents during a year-long uprising.

"The United States has an obligation to investigate the serious and credible allegations of torture and other widespread violations brought against Saleh," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said in a statement late Tuesday.