Armed clashes erupted in the center of the Libyan capital Tripoli on Tuesday, killing two, as gunmen traded anti-aircraft and heavy machinegun fire, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya television reported that six people were killed in the fighting.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will visit Lebanon next week to meet with officials as well as members of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in the south of the country, a government official told Agence France Presse.

The official said Ban's three-day trip would start on January 13.

The Arab League chief said on Monday that snipers and gunfire continue to threaten civilian lives in Syria and called for the shootings to end, as activists heaped criticism on the mission.

But Nabil al-Arabi defended the observers in his first remarks since the Arab monitors were deployed in Syria a week ago, saying the "mission needs more time."

Syrian authorities on Saturday seized “quantities of weapons and over 1,000 narcotic tablets near Sweid bridge on the Syrian-Lebanese border and in both cities of al-Qusayr and Tal Kalakh in Homs” near the border with Lebanon, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported Sunday.

“The weapons included PKM (machineguns), 14 anti-tank shells, 14 RPGs and various rifles,” SANA said.

Supporting leading educational technology and corporate business innovation, the British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher hosted, the British company ‘Promethean’ and its Local partner in Lebanon, Education Technology Manager, IET, at his residence for a reception to present and launch 'Promethean' - the Interactive board to the private sector.

The event was attended by Eugene Viskovic “President Promethean International and Rabih Baalbaki Education Technology Manager, IET, Head of the Catholic schools, father Marwan Tabet, Director General of the ministry of Education Fady Yarak, in addition to representatives from the IT sectors, the military, private businesses and heads of private and public schools.

The March 14 opposition vowed on Saturday to continue in the path of the Cedar Revolution to achieve full sovereignty and strive for stability based on the justice guaranteed by the international tribunal.

A statement issued following a meeting of the March 14 general-secretariat, said the opposition will continue its struggle to achieve “full state sovereignty whereby there won’t be any arms other than the weapons of the state on all Lebanese territories.”

Former MP Mustafa Alloush accused supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad of opening fire on his house in the northern city of Tripoli at dawn Saturday.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), Alloush said that a group of armed men began cursing outside his home and shouting pro-Assad slogans around 1:00 am.

Syrian forces were accused of firing nail bombs Friday to disperse protesters as hundreds of thousands of people flooded streets across the country to make their voices heard to Arab monitors.

Protesters called for the ouster and prosecution of President Bashar al-Assad, whose autocratic regime has been blamed for the deaths of more than 5,000 people since pro-reform protests erupted in March.

Syria's envoy to Beirut has urged the Lebanese government to prevent cross-border arms smuggling, saying the alleged trafficking was "complementary to terrorism.”

In an interview with the Hizbullah-run website al-Intiqad, Ali Abdul Karim Ali called on Lebanon to take "serious, strict measures to end arms smuggling from Lebanon into Syria and... not give in to international pressure."

The ministerial committee tasked with following up the issue of oil and gas exploration on Wednesday referred the executive decrees prepared by the energy and water ministry to the government, which will discuss them in its January 4 session.

Briefing reporters after the committee’s meeting at the Grand Serail, Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil said: “I want to announce the good news to the Lebanese: the ministerial committees tasked with studying the oil decrees has reached an agreement and referred the decrees prepared by the energy ministry to the upcoming Jan. 4 cabinet session.”