Russia's U.N. ambassador on Tuesday slammed efforts to "poison" relations between his country and the Arab world after Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin made the comments as he strongly rejected Arab internet reports that he had threatened the prime minister of Qatar during talks at the United Nations last week on Syria.

The United States on Tuesday voiced skepticism of promises by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia's foreign minister and said that he should instead immediately end the violence.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States would withhold judgment on Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Damascus but criticized Assad for making new pledges of domestic reforms.

A U.S. judge Tuesday set an October 22 trial date for an Iranian-American accused of plotting with senior Tehran officials to hire Mexican gangsters to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Federal Judge John Keenan rejected a request for more time by the defense lawyer for Manssor Arbabsiar, a used car salesman from Texas with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship.

Senior Republican senator John McCain urged the United States Tuesday to consider arming the opposition fighting the forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

"We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop," he told reporters.

Syria and Turkey are negotiating the conditions for the release of 49 detained Turkish intelligence officers, a radio station close to the government in Damascus said on Tuesday.

Sham FM said the officers had been detained while operating undercover, although there has been no word from Ankara on any such arrests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Syria was pressing ahead with the reform program President Bashar al-Assad had promised in a series of speeches last year and would soon announce the timetable for a referendum on a new constitution to replace the current one which enshrines the dominant role of his Baath party.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said that Assad would receive the text drawn up by an appointed panel on Wednesday.

Egypt's interior minister denied on Tuesday that police had fired birdshot at protesters in deadly clashes last week between security and demonstrators, despite testimonies from medics and witnesses.

At least 15 people have been killed in Cairo and the canal city of Suez since violence erupted near the interior ministry on Thursday sparked by deadly football-related clashes, the health ministry said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held talks on Tuesday with Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on the second-day of an official visit expected to focus on Afghan peace efforts.

Gilani arrived in Doha Monday on a three-day trip that will also address bilateral relations between the two nations, according to official statements.

The deal signed in Doha by rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas has moved the two sides closer to reconciliation but challenges remain, officials and experts warn.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads Fatah, and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal signed an accord on Monday placing Abbas at the head of an interim consensus government to supervise the run-up to elections later this year.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to expel Syria's envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus over the "mass slaughter" of civilians in Syria, a joint statement said.

"Member states have decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and ask at the same time for all the ambassadors of the Syrian regime to leave immediately," a GCC statement said.