Germany on Monday led European demands for strong U.N. Security Council support for Arab League calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power.

Germany's U.N. ambassador Peter Wittig said the Arab League plan for Syria agreed at the weekend could be a "game changer" for the Security Council which has been deadlocked with Russia and China vetoing one resolution condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown.

Islamist MPs took center stage on Monday as Egypt's parliament met for the first time since a popular uprising ousted Hosni Mubarak, electing one of their own as speaker of the assembly.

In their first act, the deputies in the Islamist-dominated lower house voted overwhelmingly for Saad al-Katatni, a leading member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

The Arab League's latest roadmap for an end to the crisis in Syria signals that regional states see the Assad era drawing to a close, although it could yet be a slow process, analysts said Monday.

"I think the Arab League yesterday unexpectedly pulled the rabbit out of the hat," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.

Diehard supporters of slain Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi seized control Monday of Bani Walid in a brazen attack on his one-time bastion that killed five people, officials told Agence France Presse.

The assault on a base of former rebels who helped oust Gadhafi was the first major offensive launched by his loyalists since the "liberation" of Libya on October 23, shortly after the fall of Bani Walid.

Syria's opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Monday voiced willingness to "study" an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy and clear the way for a national unity government.

"We see in this initiative elements that reflect seriousness and deserve careful study in the context of achieving our people's demands for justice, freedom, and life with dignity," it said.

At least 22 civilians, five regime troops and an army deserter were killed in fresh violence across Syria on Monday, activists and a rights group said, also reporting a string of clashes between deserters and the army.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 23 people -- "including two children, a rebel soldier and two who died under torture."

The International Criminal Court denied Monday that it had agreed that Seif al-Islam, slain Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's most prominent son, be tried in Libya.

"The ICC has made no decision on this matter," court spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah told Agence France Presse in response to a claim by Libya's Justice Minister Ali H'mida Ashur that Seif would be judged by a Libyan court.

The head of the Arab League's observation team to Syria has struck back at critics who say the mission has failed to stop violence between security forces and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi told reporters in Cairo Monday that the mission's job was to never to stop the violence, but to document progress on the League's peace plan.

At least one person was killed in an overnight gunbattle between a former prisoner and ex-rebel fighters in the Libyan capital, a hospital official and local residents said on Monday.

"A man was killed and five others were wounded, including one who is now in a coma," an official at Tripoli's central hospital said.

A newly elected Islamist deputy was scolded on Monday for adding a religious reference to the swearing-in oath at the opening session of Egypt's first post-revolution parliament.

The deputies started to be sworn in one by one, pledging to "preserve the safety of the nation and the interests of people and to respect the constitution and the law."