Syria said Sunday it will not withdraw its forces from protest hubs without "written guarantees" that the opposition will also lay down its arms, a demand swiftly rejected by rebels, who said they will not give guarantees to a regime they do not recognize.

"To say that Syria will pull back its forces from towns on April 10 is inaccurate, with (U.N.-Arab League envoy) Kofi Annan having not yet presented written guarantees on the acceptance by armed terrorist groups of a halt to all violence," the Syrian foreign minister said in a statement.

Turkey's prime minister has warned of as yet unspecified "steps" if the government of neighboring Syria fails to abide by an April 10 deadline to cease violence, local media reported on Sunday.

"We will patiently follow the process until April 10," Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by daily Hurriyet.

Two days ahead of a U.N. deadline for Syria's military to halt fire, neither regime forces nor the rebels appeared ready on Sunday to compromise after a deadly day that saw nearly 130 people killed.

The main opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council called for U.N. intervention after monitoring groups said 86 of those killed on Saturday were civilians.

The security situation in Lebanon is “fragile” and any security incident may lead to internal unrest, reported Al-Seyassah Kuwaiti newspaper on Sunday.

A centrist ministerial source told the daily: “Unrest will erupt in more than one region, especially in areas of mixed political presence in order to avoid blame being directed against a certain camp.”

At least one million Syrians affected by violence need urgent humanitarian aid worth $70 million, said the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday.

A joint U.N. and OIC assessment mission that visited Syria has "found that there are... one million people affected by events and in need of an urgent humanitarian program worth $70 million," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Agence France Presse.

Thousands of demonstrators turned out in the Syrian capital on Saturday to show their backing for President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party on the 65th anniversary of its creation.

An Agence France Presse journalist said government supporters gathered in the central Sabaa Bahrat Square, waving the red, black and green national flag and portraits of Assad as patriotic music blared from loudspeakers.

Nearly 700 Syrian refugees poured into Turkey in 24 hours, bringing to more than 24,000 the total number of Syrians seeking haven in the neighboring country, a Turkish official said on Saturday.

Turkey is home to a growing number of refugees fleeing the unrest in Syria, where more than 9,000 people have been killed since March last year, according to U.N. figures.

Several people were killed and injured in a rocket attack on a Lebanese bus in a Syrian area overlooking the Lebanese border village of al-Qaa in eastern Lebanon, media reports said Saturday.

Initial reports said one person was killed and three others injured when the rocket hit the bus, which was carrying pilgrims to Iraq, after it crossed the Lebanese border and reached the area of al-Jousiyeh.

More than 100 people were reported killed across Syria on Saturday, 74 of them civilians, as regime forces pressed a protest crackdown three days ahead of a deadline to cease fire and pull back.

Monitors reported the escalation in violence despite U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's latest rebuke to Damascus for stepping up its assault on dissent hubs ahead of Tuesday's deadline.

Lebanese authorities are hesitant in handing over Syrian refugees to Damascus, fearing that such a move would lead to an increased international pressure on Lebanon, ministerial sources said Saturday.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Syrian authorities have asked Beirut to hand over several refugees that had escaped the fighting in their country to northern Lebanon.