Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Syria was pressing ahead with the reform program President Bashar al-Assad had promised in a series of speeches last year and would soon announce the timetable for a referendum on a new constitution to replace the current one which enshrines the dominant role of his Baath party.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said that Assad would receive the text drawn up by an appointed panel on Wednesday.

Egypt's interior minister denied on Tuesday that police had fired birdshot at protesters in deadly clashes last week between security and demonstrators, despite testimonies from medics and witnesses.

At least 15 people have been killed in Cairo and the canal city of Suez since violence erupted near the interior ministry on Thursday sparked by deadly football-related clashes, the health ministry said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held talks on Tuesday with Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on the second-day of an official visit expected to focus on Afghan peace efforts.

Gilani arrived in Doha Monday on a three-day trip that will also address bilateral relations between the two nations, according to official statements.

The deal signed in Doha by rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas has moved the two sides closer to reconciliation but challenges remain, officials and experts warn.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads Fatah, and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal signed an accord on Monday placing Abbas at the head of an interim consensus government to supervise the run-up to elections later this year.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to expel Syria's envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus over the "mass slaughter" of civilians in Syria, a joint statement said.

"Member states have decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and ask at the same time for all the ambassadors of the Syrian regime to leave immediately," a GCC statement said.

Kuwait will not deport activists who stormed the Syrian embassy back to their homeland due to fears about their safety, Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Humoud said on Tuesday.

"We will provide all guarantees for a fair trial to them and after the ruling is issued, we will deport them to a country of their choice," the minister said in a statement.

Iran is detaining more than 65 members of its Arab minority after security sweeps in Khuzestan province in the southwest ordered over the past few months, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

At least some of the arrests were linked to graffiti sprayed on public property hailing the "Arab Spring" revolutions and calling for a boycott of Iran's parliamentary elections due on March 2, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement citing reports by local activists.

Europe stepped up pressure on Syria on Tuesday as several nations recalled their ambassadors from Damascus and the EU considered new sanctions to cut the regime's access to cash.

France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands decided to bring back their envoys for consultations, joining Britain and Belgium to protest the regime's relentless opposition crackdown. The United States has closed its embassy.

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak missed a hearing on Tuesday for the first time since his trial opened last August, after a sand storm prevented his helicopter from taking off, the chief judge said.

The veteran strongman has attended every previous hearing in his trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters during the mass demonstrations that forced him from power last February.

Turkey will launch a "new initiative" with like-minded countries after the rejection of a U.N. resolution aimed at ending months-long bloodshed in neighboring Syria, its prime minister said on Tuesday.

"We will start a new initiative with those countries who stand by the Syrian people, not the regime," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in parliament, without elaborating.