Egypt's leaders confer over Assad's death

The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, has held a special cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Syria and the Middle East following the death of President Assad.

President Mubarak said afterwards that Mr Assad's death was a huge event and it was important to Egypt that Syria remained stable. Mr Mubarak said Egypt would support the Syrian leadership and respect the view of the Syrian people in choosing their president.

He said he understood Mr Assad's son, Bashar, was the candidate for president and wished him well.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service