Thousands of people demonstrated across Syria on Friday despite ongoing violence, calling for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army and condemning the international community's inaction, monitors reported.

In Hama city, protests were held in several districts despite the deployment of security forces, who arrested 20 demonstrators, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page posted the slogan: "We want weapons, not words, to protect our children from the killing," holding up portraits of UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi.

In the Kurdish town of Kubani in the northern province of Aleppo, hundreds of people, mostly children and teenagers, marched carrying Kurdish flags and the colours of the revolt in Syria, in amateur videos posted by activists on YouTube.

In Kfar Nabal, a town in the northwest province of Idlib, demonstrators marched behind a banner reading: "(US President Barack) Obama and his coward NATO have taught all the world's rulers the art of telling lies skillfully."

"The people demand the arming of the FSA (Free Syrian Army)!" hundreds of men chanted outside a white mosque in Halfaya in the central province of Hama while holding the green, white-black-red flag of the revolt.

Protesters in in the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib formed dancing lines, moving to the beat of a drummer and singing "Syria! Freedom!" as children skipped back and forth.

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