Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 17 people around the central city of Hama on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as activists called for a day of protest against Russia for backing the regime.

"The toll of victims from the operation mounted by security forces and the army in the Hama area has risen to 17 dead," the Britain-based group told Agence France Presse. More than 60 people were arrested, it said.

The United States must back a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition of statehood or risk becoming "toxic" in the Arab world and forcing a split with ally Saudi Arabia, a top Saudi diplomat warned Monday.

If Washington imposes its veto when the Palestinians seek to become the 194th member state of the United Nations then "Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has," former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote.

Libya's elusive former leader Moammar Gadhafi said he has no choice but to fight "until victory," in a message broadcast on Monday by Syria-based Arrai Oruba television.

In a statement read out by former Iraqi Sunni MP Mishan al-Juburi, who runs the television network, Gadhafi said "it is not possible to give Libya to the colonists again."

Thirty-two members of fugitive former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle, including his son Saadi, have arrived in Niger since September 2, Niger's prime minister said on Monday.

"A total of 32 people are now here, including one of (Gadhafi's) sons, Saadi, as well as three generals," Brigi Rafini said during a meeting with foreign diplomats in Niamey.

Pro-democracy activists in Syria have called for a "day of anger" against Russia on Tuesday to protest Moscow's backing for President Bashar al-Assad, who for more than six months has tried to stifle an anti-regime uprising.

"Do not support the killers. Do not kill the Syrians with your position" in favor of the regime, the activists urged Russia in a posting on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been the engine for anti-Assad revolt.

Iran has rejected accusations by the Gulf Cooperation Council that Tehran issued provocative statements about its member states, the state television website reported on Monday.

"The Islamic republic's regional policy has always followed the principles of mutual respect, (being) good-neighborly and refraining from interference in the internal affairs of other countries," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by the website as saying.

The amount of Syrian assets frozen by Switzerland has now reached 45 million francs (37.3 million euros, $51 million), Bern said Monday.

"This is a total for all sanctions against Syria, whether they be individuals or companies" and is up from 27 million francs in mid-August, a spokeswoman for the economy ministry told Agence France Presse.

Russia said Monday it would vote in favor of a controversial Palestinian bid to win U.N. statehood despite strong resistance to the idea from both Israel and the United States.

Russia's ambassador to the world governing body said Moscow was not pushing the Palestinians to submit their candidacy at the United Nations but would back the proposal if it came up for a vote.

The United Nations' failure to take a clear position on the bloody repression of demonstrations in Syria is "a scandal", the French foreign ministry said on Monday.

Recalling that according to the U.N. at least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria, ministry spokesman Bernard Valero also slammed the "revolting murder" of a protest organizer, Ghiyath Matar, while in Syrian detention.

The U.N. atomic agency said Monday Syria is ready to meet inspectors in Damascus next month to discuss a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007 and thought to have been a secret nuclear facility.

Syria in a letter "stated its readiness to have a meeting with agency safeguards staff in Damascus in October," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano told a regular meeting of its board in Vienna.