The committee tasked with drafting Syria's new constitution has decided to limit presidential terms to a maximum of two seven-year mandates, al-Watan newspaper said on Tuesday.

The draft constitution will be submitted to President Bashar Assad in "the coming days" before being put to a referendum, said the newspaper, which is close to the government.

The Arab League has formally requested a meeting with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to discuss its plan for resolving the Syria crisis and to ask for the Security Council's support, a senior League official said Tuesday.

The request was made jointly by the pan-Arab bloc's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, and by Qatar's premier, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who chairs a League panel on the crisis, Arab League deputy leader Ahmed bin Helli told Agence France Presse.

Israeli forces overnight demolished the home of a Bedouin family near Jerusalem for the fifth time, along with four other structures in an unrecognized Bedouin village, an Israeli NGO said on Tuesday.

Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that oversees the West Bank, confirmed the demolitions.

Envelopes containing white powder initially feared to be anthrax arrived at six Israeli diplomatic missions in Europe and the U.S., Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

According to reports, embassies in The Hague, Brussels and London and consulates in New York, Houston and Boston on Monday received envelopes with the word "anthrax" on them, containing what turned out to be harmless white powder.

Opposition figure Georges Sabra has left Syria for France where he told the Liberation daily that "the Syrian people deserve to be protected by the U.N."

"My party sent me here to help the SNC (Syrian National Council, the country's largest opposition group), to work as a team," the head of the Democratic People's Party told Liberation's Tuesday edition

Gulf Arab states have decided to pull their observers sent to Syria as part of an Arab League mission out of the restive country, they announced in a joint official statement on Tuesday.

"Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to follow Saudi Arabia's decision to pull out its observers from the Arab League mission in Syria," the GCC statement said.

Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, is due in Jordan on Sunday on his first official visit since he was expelled in 1999, the government spokesman said.

"Khaled Meshaal will visit Jordan on Sunday, along with the Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani," Rakan Majali, who is also information minister, told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

A member of Russia's Parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said Monday that Moscow ran out of methods to stop the international push for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria "was the last instrument allowing Bashar Assad to maintain the status quo in the international arena,” Margelov was quoted as saying by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

A senior U.S. diplomat visiting Russia will press Moscow on a reported deal to sell Syria fighter jets, something Washington described as "quite concerning," the State Department said.

Jeffrey Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, was in Moscow on Monday and Syria was "issue number one on his agenda," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Israel carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Monday, sources from both sides said, in what Israel said was a response to recent rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Israeli planes targeted an arms factory in the center of the Palestinian territory as well as three tunnels used for smuggling contraband, two in the north and one in the south, the army said in a statement.