Several Syrian opposition groups will gather in Turkey on Monday to hammer out common objectives in the face of the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent, the main umbrella grouping said.

The Istanbul meeting comes ahead of the second "Friends of Syria" conference in the same city on April 1, the Syrian National Council said in a statement on Saturday.

Hundreds of Muslim women gathered near Tunis Saturday to call for the return of the caliphate, the defunct Islamic system of governance which they said was the only means of guaranteeing their rights.

The members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party came from Islamic countries including Arab states, Indonesia and Turkey, as well as from Europe to debate the benefits of the system that disappeared nearly 90 years ago.

A Syria-based opposition group said it was boycotting the international "Friends of Syria" meeting being held on Friday in Tunis on the future of the country, complaining of exclusion and fearing escalated militarization.

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC) denounced what it described as attempts to leave the door open to militarize the uprising against the regime of Bashar Assad, and for foreign military intervention.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour confirmed on Tuesday that Lebanon will boycott “Friends of Syria” international conference that will be held in Tunis this week.

“In harmony with our decision to disassociate Lebanon from developments in Syria, we will not join the conference in Tunis,” Mansour told OTV.

Tunisian voters on Saturday weighed their choices on the eve of the Arab Spring's historic first elections nine months after the surprise toppling of strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali that started it all.

Campaigning ended at midnight for the vote the previously banned Islamist al-Nahda party is tipped to win, with the ISIE independent polling commission reminding candidates and journalists that Saturday would be an "election silence day".

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressed on Monday that the party will not interfere in the protests in Egypt.

He said during a popular gathering in support of the Tunisian and Egyptian people: “We cannot stand idly by when the dispute is between the oppressed and the oppressor.”

Tunisia said Wednesday it had issued an international arrest warrant for ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who resigned this month amid protests against his regime and fled to Saudi Arabia.

The justice ministry said Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of his once all-powerful family were accused of illegally acquiring assets and transferring funds abroad during the veteran leader's 23-year regime.

Hundreds of protesters marched in the Tunisian capital Friday shouting slogans against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the day after he promised not to seek another term, an Agence France Presse reporter said.

"No to Ben Ali, the uprising continues," they cried.