BBC News with Nick Kelly.

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again condemned the demonstrators, who staged the third day of protests, calling them anti-democratic. Crowds again converged on Taksim Square in Istanbul and there were clashes in Ankara. Mr Erdogan said protesters were marginal groups and dismissed criticism that his government is autocratic and too Islamist. Turkey has a big economy and huge economic potential. During this government's rule, the Turkish economy stepped forward, but today we see some circles, some marginal groups who have international roots and support protest in Taksim Square and Besiktas area against the government by using the wrong arguments. They chanted slogans, threw stones at shops and buildings, they demolished pavements, burnt cars, this is not democracy.

As international concern grows about a possible violent overspill from Syria civil conflict into neighbouring Lebanon, Gulf Arab countries have added their voice to the intensifying debate. The Bahraini Deputy Foreign Minister said the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council will consider action against Hezbollah if it continues its arm support of President Assad's forces. Separately, the influential American Senator John McCain has called for the West to arm the rebels with heavy weapons. As David Willis reports from Washington. Speaking on CBS' Face The Nation program, Senator McCain said rebel forces in the Syrian town of Qusair were being badly outgunned by the forces of Bashar al-Assad. He said the influx of foreign fighters into Qusair long a key supply route for weapons and fighters crossing into Syria from Lebanon had left the rebels surrounded, given the Assad's regime the upper hand, and that cast doubt over the prospects of the Syrian peace conference.