Air pollution in Tehran has left 4,460 people dead in a year, an Iranian health official said in reports Sunday, with another sounding the alarm over high dose of carcinogens in domestically-made petrol.

Hassan Aqajani, an adviser to the health minister, made the announcement on state television, and said the Tehran residents died in a year-long period since March 2011.

Police in Tehran said on Tuesday they had arrested more than 100 "thugs" as part of an operation to curb violent crime after the brutal assault of a man was captured on a surveillance camera.

"This (Tuesday) morning we apprehended over 100 thugs, some of whom had (criminal) records," the commander of Tehran metropolitan police, Hossein Sajedinia, said on state television.

A small group of protesters, most of them women, on Tuesday trashed an Iranian police post protecting the French embassy in Tehran and threw stones at visitors to the mission before being arrested, a diplomat inside told AFP.

The unannounced, violent demonstration lasted 90 minutes and involved around 15 people, the French diplomat said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday urged a Syrian opposition delegation in Baghdad to learn from the experiences of Iraq, where a new political system was established during years of violence.

Maliki met with "a delegation of representatives of a number of Syrian opposition factions, headed by Dr. Mahmud Daham al-Muslat, the head of the Syrian National Council foreign relations office in the U.S. and Canada," a statement on the Iraqi premier's website said.

Up to 500 people protested in Tehran on Thursday over an anti-Islam film made in the United States, chanting "Death to America!" and death to the movie's director, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

The rally took place near the Swiss embassy, which handles U.S. interests in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic ties.

President Michel Suleiman met with Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi and Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran last week, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

The daily said that the Syrian officials gave explanations to Suleiman on the case of former Minister Michel Samaha who was arrested last month on charges of plotting to carry out bombings in Lebanon with Syrian help.

President Michel Suleiman described his talks with Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “very useful”, adding that they had agreed on the “majority of issues”, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

He added: “Lebanon gratefully accepts all Iranian aid that does not violate international laws.”

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Iran's supreme leader and president on Wednesday that "concrete" progress is needed to end the showdown over their country's nuclear drive, a U.N. spokesman said.

Ban also had a tough message for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on human rights, their caustic comments on Israel and Iran's involvement in the Syrian civil war, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told U.N. correspondents from Tehran.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon will stress to Iranian leaders this week that they must take "urgent" action on the country's nuclear drive and human rights, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.

The warning was given as Ban headed for Tehran to take part in the Non-Aligned Movement summit starting Wednesday. The United States and Israel said that Ban should not go to Iran.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour is scheduled to travel to Iran on Sunday to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

President Michel Suleiman is set to travel to Tehran to attend the summit later next week.