Hundreds of Egyptian protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to push for reforms, as Islamists held a separate demonstration calling for stability.

Pro-democracy activists had called for a rally in Tahrir Square -- the epicenter of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak -- after a cabinet reshuffle failed to satisfy their demands.

France on Friday roundly condemned the latest clampdown on Syrian dissidents in the city of Homs where pro-regime gunmen have killed dozens, saying the army should protect rather than "sow terror."

"France condemns with the most extreme firmness the continued repression carried out by the Syrian authorities which continue, in a headlong rush to nowhere, to daily arrest and kill their own people," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists.

More than 300 Jordanian youths demonstrated in Amman Friday to condemn government "oppression" and "terrorizing" of the media, a week after several journalists were beaten up as they covered a pro-reform sit-in.

"No to government intimidation, oppression and terrorizing of the press," the youths chanted as they marched from Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman to the nearby city hall.

Syrian security services deployed in force in Damascus ahead of mass Friday protests called in support of Homs after a deadly crackdown on dissent in the central city, rights activists said.

"Elements of the army and security forces are deployed in the districts of Qabun and Rukneddin. Barricades were set up at the entrances, limiting exits and entries," said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Friday that he hoped "misunderstandings" with Saudi Arabia could be resolved after a war of words erupted over its military intervention in Bahrain.

Salehi said that Iran respected the sovereignty of Sunni-ruled Shiite-majority Bahrain and hoped that a national dialogue launched by King Hamad after the March crackdown on Shiite-led protests would bear fruit.

Iran may consider dialogue with the United States as long as it is between "equals" and Washington respects its people's rights, Foreign Minster Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview Friday.

"We have not ruled out establishing relations with other countries barring the Zionist regime (Israel), but it is possible that our relations are in an unusual situation with countries like the United States," Salehi told the official IRNA news agency.

Syrian security forces shot dead two people on Thursday as they pressed their clampdown on dissidents in the central city of Homs, the capital and elsewhere, activists said, calling for mass protests.

"There was heavy gunfire in the al-Khalidiyeh, Baba Amr and al-Nazhine quarters (of Homs), and two people were killed," said Abdul Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for Human Rights.

New ministers in a sweeping reshuffle of Egypt's cabinet were sworn in before the military ruler on Thursday, as the prime minister sought to appease protesters over the pace of reform.

"The new ministers in the government of (Prime Minister) Essam Sharaf took their oaths ... in front of the commander of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi," the official MENA news agency reported.

Yemeni Republican Guards shot dead one protester and wounded three in the second-largest city of Taez on Thursday, medics said.

The Guards opened fire as thousands of people protested against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in central Taez, a flashpoint city south of the capital Sanaa, according to organizers.

Israel will not "take responsibility" for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals by apologizing to Ankara over its botched 2010 raid on a ferry heading for Gaza, a senior cabinet minister said Thursday.

"We are not ready to apologize as apologizing is taking responsibility," Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters in Jerusalem.