Libyan rebels appear to be gaining ground against Moammar Gadhafi, the British defense minister said, despite a deadly attack on Misrata port by the Libyan strongman's forces.

"We've seen some momentum gained in the last few days. We've seen some progress made in Misrata. And it's very clear that the regime is on the back foot," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said on Tuesday.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon and western nations expressed growing alarm on Tuesday at the deadly clampdown in Syria, but the U.N. Security Council made little headway in efforts to agree to condemn the violence.

Syria's U.N. envoy pleaded for international understanding for President Bashar Assad, but the U.S. ambassador accused Assad of "disingenuously blaming outsiders" while seeking Iran's help to put down protests.

An explosion rocked a natural gas terminal near Egypt's border with Israel on Wednesday sending flames shooting into the air and forcing the shutdown of the country's export pipeline, said security officials.

It was the second attack in the past month on the al-Sabil terminal near the town of El-Arish just 50 kilometers from the border with Israel. On March 27 gunmen planted explosives at the terminal, that failed to detonate.

Syria bolstered its troops Tuesday in the flashpoint town of Daraa as a rights group appealed for U.N. intervention in a bloody crackdown it said has killed 400 people since mid-March.

As the Daraa crackdown raged into a second day, Britain said it was working with its partners to send a "strong signal" to Damascus while France and Italy denounced the "unacceptable" situation in Syria.

Egyptian ex-interior minister Habib al-Adly pleaded not guilty as he went on trial in Cairo Tuesday accused of ordering the shooting of demonstrators during protests that toppled the former regime.

Adly and six former aides made a brief appearance in a packed Cairo courthouse before Judge Adel Abdul Salam Gomaa, who postponed the trial until May 21 to allow more time for defense lawyers as well for legal experts acting for families of victims.

Speaker Nabih Berri demanded on Tuesday that the investigation into alleged Lebanese meddling in Syrian affairs should be conducted in a legal framework.

He said during a ceremony commemorating poet Najib Jamaledddine: ““All Lebanese should be keener on Syria’s security and stability than the Syrians themselves.”

Italy and France called for an end to the "violent repression" against peaceful protests in Syria on Tuesday, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the situation was "unacceptable".

"We issue a strong call on the authorities in Damascus to end the violent repression against what are peaceful demonstrations," Berlusconi said to a news conference following the summit.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called for an end to the "violent repression" of protests in Syria, and said to Agence France Presse on Monday that London was working with the U.N. and EU to send a "strong signal" to Damascus.

"I condemn utterly any violence and killings perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against civilians who are expressing their views in peaceful protests," Hague said in a statement to AFP.

Bahrain has declared the second secretary in the Iranian embassy here persona non grata and ordered him to leave within 72 hours due to his alleged links with a Kuwait spy ring, state media said.

The BNA news agency named the official as Hujatullah Rahmani and said Iran's charge d'affaires in Bahrain was summoned on Monday to the foreign ministry where the decision had been conveyed to him.

The United States late Monday ordered embassy family members and some non-emergency personnel to leave Syria, citing the "uncertainty and volatility" of a crackdown on protesters there.

The State Department's ordered departure, along with a travel warning telling U.S. citizens to leave the country, followed another day of violent attacks on protesters by Syrian security forces.