France condemns the "massacre" by Syrian forces which reportedly killed more than 90 people in the town of Houla and calls for greater international action, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Saturday.

"I am making immediate arrangements for a Friends of Syria group meeting in Paris," Fabius said in a statement in the wake of Friday's attacks on the town in a new violation of a ceasefire.

The U.N. mission chief in Syria Major General Robert Mood on Saturday condemned the "brutal tragedy" in Houla, where he said 92 bodies, including those of more than 32 children, had been counted.

Mood said he condemns "in the strongest possible terms the brutal tragedy" in Houla in the central province of Homs, adding that U.N. monitors visited the area and counted 92 bodies, including "more than 32 under the age of 10."

Syrian regime forces on Saturday pounded rebel positions in central Homs province, with 18 people killed in violence across the country, including 13 civilians, a monitoring group reported.

The latest deaths come just hours after more than 90 people were reportedly massacred by regime forces in the town of Houla, also in Homs province.

The rebel Free Syrian Army called on Saturday for the Friends of Syria to carry out air strikes on the forces of President Bashar Assad after more than 90 people, including 25 children, were reportedly "massacred" in the town of Houla.

Turkey-based General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, head of the FSA's military council, called on the international community to take "an appropriate stance after the heinous crime committed by Assad's assassin regime in the Houla region."

A Saudi diplomat kidnapped nearly a month ago in Yemen's south appealed to King Abdullah to fulfill the demands of al-Qaida to secure his release, according to a video posted on jihadist forums.

"I appeal to King Abdullah ... and the Saudi government to save me and release me from al-Qaida organization in return for releasing the sisters detained in (Saudi) general investigation prisons and fulfilling the remaining demands of the organization," Abdullah al-Khalidi said in the video, posted late on Friday, and published by SITE Intelligence Group.

A gas blast at a university canteen in Algeria killed seven students and left 28 others injured, the APS news agency reported.

The students were eating dinner in Tlemcen, 520 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers when the explosion occurred.

Syria's main opposition bloc urged the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to convene an emergency meeting to examine what it called an army massacre near Homs, where it said 110 people were killed.

"More than 110 people were killed (half of whom are children) by the Syrian regime's forces" in the village of Houla, the Syrian National Council said in a statement.

Army tanks were deployed on Friday in Syria's second city Aleppo for the first time since an uprising against the regime erupted 14 months ago, a monitoring group said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the tanks rumbled through the Kalasse and Bustan al-Kasr neighborhoods of the northern city, where thousands of people attended a funeral.

Egyptian Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh on Friday urged his supporters to "confront the corrupt regime," in an implicit appeal against Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

His statement came after figures showing that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi and Shafiq appeared to have won the first round of Egypt's presidential vote, setting them up for a run-off.

Helicopter gunships on Friday fired on rebel positions in the Latakia area of northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, wounding at least 20 people, a monitoring group said.

"This is the first time that this area, known as the Mountain of the Kurds, has been the target of air strikes," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.