Thousands of people marched in the southern Syrian city of Deraa on Saturday chanting 'the people want the overthrow of the regime', two witnesses said, ahead of a televised speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The demonstrators marched from the ancient Omari mosque in the old quarter of the city towards the main Saraya square in  downtown, with scores carrying posters of those killed in weeks of pro-democracy protests, the witnesses told Reuters by phone from the border city with Jordan.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 women marched on Saturday in the city of Banias in an all female pro-democracy protest, a rights campaigner said.

'Not Sunni, not Alawite. Freedom is what we all want,' the women chanted, according to the rights campaigner in the city, which has witnessed ethnic tension between its majority Sunni inhabitants and Alawite residents.-Reuters