Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to an official statement.

"The government and nation of Turkey has always clearly supported the nuclear positions of the Islamic republic of Iran, and will continue to firmly follow the same policy in the future," Erdogan was quoted as saying in the statement issued by Ahmadinejad's office.

Arab leaders urged dialogue and an end to Syria's bloody crackdown on dissent at a landmark summit in Baghdad on Thursday, while Iraq's premier warned that arming rival camps would spark a "proxy war."

Regional leaders approved a resolution calling for an end to the government's crackdown, for the opposition to unite and for parties to the conflict to launch a "serious national dialogue."

The world's biggest emerging powers on Thursday said dialogue was the only answer to the crises in Syria and Iran, seeking to buttress their economic heft with a unified diplomatic clout.

At their fourth summit, the leaders of the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- also pushed for the creation of a new joint development bank as a counterpoint to Western-backed aid lenders.

Kuwait on Thursday condemned Sunni activists for setting ablaze an Iranian flag during a rally to protest a Shiite tweeter's insults against Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

A foreign ministry official expressed his "rejection and condemnation of this irresponsible action," the official KUNA news agency reported, citing a statement.

There is enough evidence to bring human rights charges against Syrian President Bashar Assad over his crackdown on protesters, U.N. rights Chief Navi Pillay said in comments broadcast Wednesday.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast Wednesday but recorded earlier, Pillay said the president's role as commander of the security forces left him responsible for their actions during the unrest.

Violence across Syria on Thursday killed at least 13 people, nearly all of them civilians, a monitoring group said.

Three civilians died as regime forces stormed villages near the town of Maaret al-Numan, in northwestern Idlib province, which has been under a relentless army assault since the start of the month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul Sunday will be a chance for the international community to judge if Bashar al-Assad's regime is implementing Kofi Annan's peace plan, France said.

"Bashar al-Assad has supposedly accepted Kofi Annan's peace plan," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told a press conference on Wednesday.

Damascus will reject any initiative stemming from this week's Arab League summit to end the year-long crisis in Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"Syria will not cooperate with any Arab League initiative at any level," spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a statement to AFP.

Members of a controversial panel tasked with drafting Egypt's new constitution on Wednesday elected Muslim Brotherhood member Saad al-Katatni -- currently the speaker of parliament-- to head the committee.

The appointment comes following a series of withdrawals from the constituent assembly by liberal, leftist and independent figures who accuse Islamists of monopolizing the process that will deliver the post-revolution charter.

The U.N. and Arab League's envoy to mediate the Syria conflict, Kofi Annan, will visit Tehran next week, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.

"Kofi Annan is probably coming to Tehran on Monday," Salehi told reporters on the sideline of a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.