Syria's main opposition bloc insisted on Wednesday that any talks between U.S. and Russia on ending their country's war be based on President Bashar Assad's departure.

"According to news sources at the NATO foreign ministers conference in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov met and seemed to share similar views regarding the Syrian crisis," said the National Coalition.

Damascus said on Wednesday it will stop cooperating with international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi unless he severs his ties with the Arab League, which it accused of involvement in a conspiracy against Syria.

"Syria has cooperated and will cooperate with Brahimi only as U.N. envoy, because the Arab League is complicit in the conspiracy against Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

A car bomb in the Iraqi capital killed at least seven people and wounded 23 on Wednesday, security and medical officials said.

The bomb exploded in a mobile phone market in Al-Husseiniyah in east Baghdad, they said, bringing the toll since Tuesday from a country-wide wave of violence to 125 dead and 268 wounded.

Tunisian MPs on Wednesday adopted a law creating a temporary independent body tasked with overseeing the judiciary, more than two years after the revolution and following months of disagreement.

The law was adopted almost unanimously, with 151 votes in favor and four abstentions, according to national television which broadcast the debate.

U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi suggested the Security Council consider an arms embargo on both sides of Syria's conflict during a closed-door meeting, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Brahimi "emphasized the need for a political solution along the lines of the Geneva Communique and warned against the growing militarization and radicalization inside Syria," Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said, describing the address delivered last Friday.

The minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque was destroyed on Wednesday, Syrian state media and a watchdog reported, with the regime and the opposition blaming each other.

An archaeological treasure in Aleppo's UNESCO-listed Old City, the mosque has been the center of fighting for months and had already suffered extensive damage.

The U.N's envoy on torture voiced his "deep disappointment" Wednesday after Bahrain, rocked by renewed clashes between security forces and pro-democracy activists, postponed his planned visit.

"This is the second time that my visit has been postponed, at very short notice," United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez said in a statement.

Spain backs the formation of a national unity government in Syria as a way out of the country's two-year conflict, its foreign minister said after talks in Beirut on Wednesday.

"The regime of (Syrian President) Bashar Assad has support, more or less, among the population, the Russians and the Iranians, and (can rely) on an army that functions," Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said at a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour in Beirut.

President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt will visit Brazil on May 7 for a two-day visit focused on the economy, his spokesman Ehab Fahmy said on Wednesday.

Morsi, who won elections last June promising to address the battered economy, has already visited the four other member states of the BRICS group -- Russia, India, China and South Africa -- which he hopes Egypt can join.

The Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria Tawadros II will meet Pope Francis next month in the Vatican -- the first visit by a Coptic Orthodox leader in 40 years and the latest signs of growing ties between the new pope and the Orthodox world.

Tawadros will visit various Vatican departments and is set to stay in Rome for several days. His arrival is expected for May 10 or 11, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told Agence France Presse.