The AFP reports:

Syria's main opposition coalition on Wednesday  urged the UN Security Council to act against the 'escalation of arrests' in the  country and for observers to visit detention centres.

'The Syrian National Council calls on the Security Council to pass a resolution demanding the Assad regime stop the escalation in arrests, murders and torture of detainees, and demand their release,' the SNC said in a statement.

It also called for the observer force deployed in Syria to count the number  of detained and 'carry out frequent and unannounced visits to the prisons' of  those locked up in the 13-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.