Syria's main opposition group called on Sunday on the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss the fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, saying that the regime is planning "massacres."

"The Syrian National Council calls on the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss the situation in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs," the SNC said, adding that the "regime (of President Bashar Assad) is preparing to storm and commit massacres in Aleppo."

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday urged the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene in the Syria conflict to pre-empt an all-out civil war.

"The role of the countries of the Security Council is to intervene as quickly as possible," he said, specifically addressing Damascus allies Russia and China and warning that failure to do so would mean "chaos and civil war."

Sudanese troops on Thursday chased rebels in the country's troubled Darfur region, the army said, in renewed fighting that adds to a surge in violence outlined by the region's top peacekeeper.

The latest unrest in southeastern Darfur is an offshoot of battles between the army and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels earlier in the week, just across the border in South Kordofan state, said Sawarmi Khaled Saad, the Sudanese army spokesman.

Russia on Wednesday lashed out at the United States for backing the armed opposition to the Syrian regime, saying Washington's failure to condemn the July 18 blast that killed top security officials meant it was justifying terror.

"This is quite an awful position, I cannot even find the words to make clear how we feel," Lavrov told reporters. "This is directly justifying terrorism. How can this be understood?"

Iran is defiantly forging on with its controversial nuclear activities by activating hundreds more uranium enrichment centrifuges, according to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"There are currently 11,000 centrifuges active in enrichment facilities" in Iran, he was quoted by state media as saying late on Tuesday in a meeting with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior regime officials.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly voiced on Tuesday the U.N. Security Council’s appreciation for the “determination of Lebanon’s leaders to protect their country from the effects of the crisis in neighboring Syria and other regional developments.”

He said after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati: “Security Council members were concerned, and so naturally am I, very concerned, at the border incidents that have been taking place in the north and the Bekaa.”

Russia on Friday slammed the "unacceptable" Western criticism that followed its decision to block together with China the threat of sanctions against its ally Syria at the U.N. Security Council.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that some Western countries are trying to lay the blame for the escalating Syrian violence on Russia's refusal to support a resolution threatening sanctions against the authorities," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

Syrian rebels declared the battle to "liberate" Damascus has begun as heavy fighting raged across the capital on Tuesday and Russia said it will do everything to support a tattered peace plan.

The proclamation by the Free Syrian Army came as U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the 16-month-old crisis, which is increasingly being described as a civil war, was at a "critical time."

Russia on Monday accused Western powers of using "blackmail" to get its backing for possible U.N. Security Council sanctions against Syria over the regime's crackdown on an armed opposition.

"To our great regret, we are witnessing elements of blackmail," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference over moves to end 16 months of violence that the opposition says has claimed more than 17,000 lives.

U.N. observers in Syria are ready to go to the central village of Treimsa, where 150 people were reported massacred, if a ceasefire is in place, mission chief Major General Robert Mood said on Friday.

"UNSMIS stands ready to go in and seek verification of the facts, if and when there is a credible ceasefire," Mood, the head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told a news conference in Damascus.