Protests spread in Syria on Friday from their southern epicenter of Daraa to Damascus and a town south of the capital, where authorities moved to arrest at least five demonstrators.

Hundreds of people marched from Omayyed mosque in the centre of Damascus' Old City along Souk Al-Hamadiyeh Street chanting: "Daraa is Syria" and "We will sacrifice ourselves for Syria."

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to hand over power to "safe hands" but vowed to resist an escalating campaign to force him out of office, in an address to a huge crowd of supporters.

"We will stand firm with you ... steadfast in the face of all challenges," said Saleh, wearing a smart suit and sunglasses as he tries to snatch back the initiative from the opposition.

Syrian activists vowed to push on with rallies against "injustice and repression" on Friday after weekly Muslim prayers, dismissing reform pledges announced by the authorities.

Facebook group The Syria Revolution 2011, which has attracted almost 78,000 fans, called for "Day of Dignity" rallies Friday at mosques across Syria, after a week of deadly protests in the south.

France's Chief of Defense said Friday in a radio interview that he thought allied military operations in Libya would last a matter of "weeks" and hopefully not "months".

"I doubt that it will be (over) in days, I think it will be weeks, and I hope it won't be in months," Admiral Edouard Guillaud told the France Info radio station.

A Palestinian and an Israeli soldier were injured Friday in a scuffle in the Jordan valley region of the occupied West Bank, police said.

"Police lightly injured a Palestinian when they opened fire at him after he tried to snatch a soldier's weapon," spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that the soldier was hit in the head by stones Palestinians threw at him.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel is ready to act with "great force" against militant attacks; a day after Israelis launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza.

Israel had been "subjected to bouts of terror and rocket attacks," Netanyahu said following a spate of rocket fire on southern Israel from Gaza and a bombing in Jerusalem that killed one and wounded more than 30 people.

Several Jordanian student protesters were in hospital Friday after "loyalists" attacked their protest camp as police stood by, witnessed told Agence France Presse.

Around 500 young people from different movements, including the powerful Islamist opposition, had camped out in the rain and cold weather to call for reforms to the current regime and for corrupt leaders to be put on trial.

Iran on Friday dismissed the U.N. human rights council's appointment of an investigator to monitor abuses there for the first time since 2002, the state news agency IRNA reported.

"This resolution is unjust, unjustifiable and totally political, and has been approved despite the reticence of certain countries, under pressure from the United States," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government on Thursday said it may scrap an emergency law in place since 1963 and announced the release of all activists detained this month, following a week of deadly protests in the south.

"Under a directive by President Bashar al-Assad, all those detained in recent events have been freed," state television reported.

A French fighter jet destroyed a Gadhafi regime warplane on Thursday, apparently as it was landing in the Libyan city of Misrata, a U.S. official said.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first shoot-down of a Libyan fighter since Western powers launched missiles and air strikes Saturday under a U.N. resolution approving a "no-fly" zone aimed at shielding civilians from attacks by forces loyal to strongman Moammar Gadhafi.