U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that fighting on Sudan's border with South Sudan was "deeply distressing" and that Khartoum bore the brunt of the blame for the violence.

"The weight of responsibility rests with Khartoum," Clinton told reporters, citing aerial bombing runs by the Sudanese government as "evidence of disproportionate force."

Hundreds of Syrian opponents met in Istanbul Tuesday to cobble a common vision for an eventual post-Assad era ahead of a key global conference but the gathering was marked by dissent.

The Syrian National Council (SNC) main opposition group unveiled a proposal to lay the foundations of a new Syria to some 400 opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime's crackdown on dissenters has claimed almost 10,000 lives in a year, according to monitors.

The United Nations on Tuesday increased its death toll estimate for the Syria unrest to more than 9,000, as a rights group announced that nearly 10,000 people were killed.

"Violence on the ground has continued unabated," Robert Serry, a U.N. Middle East peace envoy, told the U.N. Security Council.

Syria's regime is committing human rights atrocities, including torture of men arbitrarily detained by security forces, that could amount to "crimes against humanity," U.S. envoy Robert Ford said Tuesday.

Ford also told a U.S. congressional hearing that President Bashar al-Assad showed "little interest in human rights" but argued against further militarization of the conflict, saying diplomatic pressure should prevail on Assad to give up power.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday it was "short-sighted" to think that the crisis in Syria would be solved if President Bashar al-Assad agreed to Western calls to step down.

"To think that Assad's departure would mean the removal of all the problems is a very short-sighted position and everyone understands that if this happened the conflict would most likely continue," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Medvedev as telling Russian reporters at a summit in Seoul.

The new head of Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police has said he will cut back on the number of "undercover" patrols by his organization which enforces the kingdom's strict Islamic rules.

"The number of undercover vehicles will be reduced in all regions, and we shall reconsider their tasks by either regulating their work or cancelling it all together," Abdullatif al-Sheikh said, quoted by local media on Tuesday.

Syria has accepted a proposal crafted by Kofi Annan that aims to end the bloodshed roiling the country, the envoy's spokesman said Tuesday, in a move cautiously welcomed by Western states.

As monitors reported almost 10,000 dead in the year-long uprising, and with at least another 17 people killed on Tuesday, U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan in Beijing cautioned that implementing his six-point plan is the key to peace.

Arab economy ministers opened talks in Baghdad on Tuesday ahead of a regional summit, focused on increasing tourism as the spectra of the crackdown in Syria loomed over the meetings.

Arab League officials have insisted the March 27-29 talks, a pivotal moment as Iraq bids to re-emerge as a key Middle East player, will cover a wide range of issues, but Syria, where monitors say over 9,100 people have been killed in an anti-regime uprising, remains in the limelight.

Hundreds of Syrian opponents gathered in Istanbul Tuesday to envision a "democratic" state in Syria, seeking to prepare for the eventual aftermath of President Bashar Assad's era.

A large number of opposition factions gathered behind closed doors in the Turkish city to discuss the basic principles for a future Syrian state, which the Syrian National Council (SNC), the umbrella opposition, has pledged to be multinational, civil and democratic.

Beijing on Tuesday called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the mediation efforts of Kofi Annan, as the United Nations and Arab League envoy held talks with Chinese leaders.

"We hope that all parties in Syria can cooperate with Mr. Annan's mediation efforts, in order to create conditions for the political settlement of the Syrian issue," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told journalists.