Observers back to Syria?

The Arab League intends to revive its monitoring mission in Syria, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said late Wednesday as activists and rights groups reported continued heavy bombardment by government troops in the city of Homs.

Following a UN Security Council briefing, Ban told reporters Arab League head Nabil Elaraby had asked for UN help with the project in a phone conversation on Tuesday.

Elaraby had also proposed a joint UN-Arab League mission to Syria, including a joint-special envoy, Ban said, adding that the UN was ready to help but that no decision had yet been taken on the issue.

The Arab league suspended its observer mission in Syria on January 28 because of the mounting violence in key protest cities.

Ban went on to label the Security Council's failure last week to agree a resolution on Syria as "disastrous" for the country's people. "It has encouraged the Syrian government to step up its war on its own people," he said.

Bombardments continue

Meanwhile, government tanks have been reported on the streets of Homs as rockets and mortars pounded buildings and areas controlled by opposition supporters for a fifth straight day.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 69 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, including 50 in Homs alone. The death toll from the 11 months of bloodshed stands at more than 6,800, the group said.

Syria's third-largest city has become the center of both resistance and reprisal, fueled in part by increasingly bold army defectors who want to bring down President Assad's autocratic regime by force.

The government says foreign-backed groups are the cause of the violence, and insists the offensive on Homs would continue until "order" was reestablished in the city.

Standoff over way forward

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted any outside intervention to stop the violence would have the destructive effect of a "bull in a china shop."

The Kremlin dispatched Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to meet with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday to discuss a peaceful solution to the ongoing violence.

Back in Moscow on Wednesday, Lavrov said Syrians themselves must decide Assad's fate, and not the international community.

Last week, Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution backing a new Arab League plan that would have urged Assad to hand power to a deputy who would have overseen a transition of power.

But the United States joined France and Britain in dismissing Moscow's approach to ending the conflict.

"What is clear is that siding with the Assad regime at this stage will not get Russia anything except for the alienation of the Syrian people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Carney had earlier indicated the US was considering the "possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians."

Punitive approach

The European Union, meanwhile, is debating a series of new sanctions against Syria, including the suspension of commercial flights and freezing the assets of the Syrian Central Bank.

Among the sanctions being debated by the 27-member bloc are a banning of phosphate imports from Syria and a trade suspension covering gold and gems in an attempt to cut off the government's funding.

It was not immediately clear when the sanctions could come into effect if agreed upon.

dfm/ncy (Reuters, AFP, AP)