President Barack Obama is prepared to authorize air strikes in Syria as part of a strategy to battle the Islamic State, two major U.S. newspapers reported late Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil is scheduled to travel to Jeddah to attend talks on joint action against the Islamic State (IS) group, a cabinet minister said.

The minister, who was not identified, told al-Liwaa newspaper published Wednesday that Bassil will attend a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and around nine Arab states in addition to Turkey.

Fiji on Wednesday retracted a claim that 45 U.N. peacekeepers being held hostage in the Golan Heights by Syrian al-Nusra Front rebels were about to be released, blaming a communications mix-up.

"I don't think so... someone has misinterpreted," government spokesman Dan Gavidi told Agence France Presse when asked if posts on official social media feeds on Wednesday morning trumpeting the impending release were correct.

An attack on a meeting of a Syrian rebel chiefs in the north of the war-ravaged country on Tuesday killed at least 28 leaders from one group, a monitor said.

"Twenty-eight heads of the Ahrar al-Sham group were killed in an explosion that targeted a meeting tonight... in Idlib province," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

British charity Oxfam called Tuesday on rich nations to commit to accepting between them at least five percent of Syria's three million refugees and urged them to increase aid contributions.

The group also called for countries to stop providing weapons to parties in Syria's conflict that are committing rights violations.

Staffan de Mistura, the new United Nations envoy on the Syrian crisis, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for his first visit since being appointed to the post.

De Mistura was seen arriving at his hotel at the beginning of a trip expected to last three days and include meetings with Syrian government officials and members of the tolerated domestic opposition.

Syrian troops have regained control of villages near a military air base in the central province of Hama, pushing back rebel fighters in the area, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops and pro-regime militiamen had made the advances in the past few days after months of fighting with rebel groups in the area.

Syrian media accused Arab governments Tuesday of giving Washington prior agreement for military action against jihadists, with one daily calling for Damascus to form an alternative alliance with Moscow and Tehran.

The commentary comes ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday between Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. regional allies on joint action to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic State group in both Syria and Iraq.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri appealed on Tuesday to the Lebanese for calm, warning of slipping into sedition.

“I call on all the Lebanese, in particular the residents of (the eastern) Bekaa valley, (the northern portal city of) Tripoli and the town of Akkar, to be calm, have patience and wisdom,” Hariri said in a statement issued by his press office.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday called for world intelligence agencies to work together against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

"In order to stop and overcome the Islamic State, we have learnt since 9/11 that there must be cooperation between intelligence agencies from across the free world, a sharing of experience and operational cooperation," he told public radio.