Churches in Lebanon held prayers on Saturday night for peace in Syria and against any armed intervention in the country, in a response to Pope Francis' calls.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi led prayers at Our Lady of Lebanon basilica in Harissa, the state-run National News Agency said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he held talks on Syria with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit but confirmed the meeting did not end their differences on the conflict, as the American leader said he knew convincing the U.S. Congress to back military action against Damascus would be a "heavy lift."

"We spoke sitting down... it was a constructive, meaningful, cordial conversation. Each of us kept with our own opinion," Putin told reporters, saying the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes.

The U.S. embassy in Beirut said Friday that its non-essential staff and family members are being evacuated from Lebanon because of "threats to U.S. mission facilities and personnel."

"On September 6 2013, the Department of State drew down non-emergency personnel and family members from Embassy Beirut due to threats to U.S. mission facilities and personnel," a statement on the embassy website said.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said Friday that a naval torpedo destroyer was being deployed just off the Lebanese coast to protect the 1,100 Italian troops on U.N. peacekeeping duty in Lebanon.

Italian media reported a second warship, a frigate, was also being sent to Lebanon's coast, but the Defense Ministry denied plans to deploy it.

Hizbullah on Thursday condemned plans for U.S.-led military action against Damascus as an “aggression” and “organized terrorism,” warning that it would pose a “threat to regional and international peace and security.”

In a statement issued after its periodic meeting in Haret Hreik, the party's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc stressed that any strike is “rejected and condemned by all standards, regardless of its alibis or limits, and it will not be able to conceal its objectives, which are aimed at reviving the Israeli arm again and attempting to tighten the Western colonial grip on the region and its fortunes.”

Two Italian warships are sailing closer toward offshore Lebanon to protect Italy's soldiers participating in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the South, An Italian news report said.

Italy currently has some 1,100 soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday urged world support for punitive strikes against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, while Damascus vowed retaliation and resistance even if a third world war erupts.

Obama, fresh from efforts in Washington to secure bipartisan support for military intervention, said in Stockholm that the world had set "a red line" for Syria and it could not now remain silent in the face of the regime's alleged use of chemical weapons.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday hoped U.S. President Barack Obama will not act on Syria as his predecessor George W. Bush acted on Iraq, accusing caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati of appointing directors general as “his spies” in state institutions.

“I had suggested in 2005 to form a parliamentary committee on security, but they have been delaying it because there is a political will against its creation. It should be a regular committee like the rest of committees and MPs must demand a proper performance from the security agencies, or else it should not be formed and let them bear the responsibility,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabiyeh.

Syrian leader Bashar Assad warned Monday that Western military strikes would risk igniting a "regional war" in the "powder keg" of the Middle East, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro.

He also said France would face "repercussions" if it took part in U.S.-led plans for military action in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad's regime last month.

The head of Syria's opposition National Coalition on Sunday urged Arab countries to back U.S.-led Western strikes on the Damascus regime over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

"I am here before you today to appeal to your brotherly and humanitarian sentiments and ask you to back the international operation against the destructive war machine" of the Syrian regime, Ahmed al-Jarba told a Cairo meeting of Arab League foreign ministers.