"Here I cannot emphasize enough the challenges that we are all facing, both in Jordan and Lebanon. And it's only going to get worse."

He urged the international community to come together "decisively" to end the bloodshed and come up with a solution that gives all Syrians a stake in their country's future.

"The situation is now very volatile security wise. Parts of the country are changing hands at a very rapid basis," said Valerie Amos, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator. "We are trying to get to as many people as we can because people cross the borders when they really reach a desperation stage, where they can't get food, they can't get medical supplies."

About 700,000 Syrian refugees have left for neighboring nations since the conflict began, Amos said.

The International Rescue Committee has noted that in Jordan and other countries, a majority of Syrian refugees are living outside of camps -- in cities and towns where social services, schools and even trash and waste systems are not equipped to meet the needs of a suddenly inflated population.

Amos urged donors to help, saying she hoped a Wednesday conference in Kuwait would yield some of the $1.5 billion in aid requested by humanitarian groups.

That money would help Syrians displaced within their own country and those who have fled to neighboring nations for six months, she said.

"If we do not receive these funds, we will not be able to reach the poorest and most vulnerable families who so desperately need our help," she said.

Zaatari is in Jordan's northern desert, northeast of Amman.

Enterprising Syrian refugees, many of whom arrived with nothing, have set up their own retail avenue amid dusty tents and prefabricated metal shelters. The facilities are providing a small source of income and -- perhaps more importantly -- something to do to stave off the boredom and discomfort of camp life.

The United Nations estimates 60,000 people have died in nearly two years of fighting between the rebels and government forces.

Violence continued in Syria on Friday, with three people killed in clashes nationwide, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees. Heavy shelling continued in the Damascus suburbs, the group said.

Elsewhere, rebels raided the Idlib Central Prison and freed 300 prisoners, the LCC said.

Video purportedly taped by rebels showed them using pipes to pry the prison's barred windows away from the wall.

"Be patient, be patient," a man behind the camera shouts at the inmates, with one waving his hand out the cell bars.

Rebels were engaged in firefights Friday with government security forces at the prison, and the rebels managed to cross some prison walls, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Freed, wounded prisoners and injured rebels were treated at a makeshift clinic in Amaaret Misreen about 6 miles (9 kilometers) outside Idlib, an opposition activist said.

The rebels' assault on the prison began Friday and they were in control of 60% of the facility, though fighting continued over two major buildings, said opposition activist Omar Abu Al-Huda. He told CNN he witnessed the offensive.

The inmate population includes political prisoners, and the prison is considered the last major government position in western Idlib, Al-Huda said.

Government forces have an army position, with tanks and heavy machine guns, inside the prison.