The French Foreign Minister has said the International community may have to consider taking military action against Syria in an effort to end the crackdown by government forces.

Syrian troops shelled a rebel-held area of Homs and sent reinforcements to border areas today.

Syria’s government is failing to honour its pledges to implement a ceasefire plan aimed at ending more than a year of bloodshed, and violence there has escalated since a truce took effect a week ago, the UN chief has said.

Syrian troops have launched a fierce assault on a Damascus suburb, days ahead of a deadline for a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Syrian forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began, a UN official said, aa Hilary Clinton suggested the Syrian leader may be a war criminal.

Two wounded Western journalists escaped from Syria today after being trapped for days in the besieged central city of Homs, activist groups said.

The European Union will freeze the assets of Syria’s central bank on Monday, the French foreign minister has said, in the latest effort to pressure Syria to halt its bloody crackdown on an uprising against president Bashar Assad.

Syrian troops attacked rebel strongholds in Deraa where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted nearly a year ago, and the UN chief said crimes against humanity had almost certainly been committed in Syria.

FRENCH president Nicolas Sarkozy demanded Syria’s Bashar al-Assad step down for overseeing “disgusting” massacres against his own people, as an Arab observer mission came in for more criticism.

The Arab League has given Syria 24 hours to agree to allow an observer mission into the country, or it could face sanctions.

Syria has agreed “in principle” to allow an observer mission into the country, a senior official in Damascus said today, as fresh anti-government protests erupted and France called for the UN to act against President Bashar Assad.

LEADERS of the Libyan uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi sat down with world powers to map out the country’s rebuilding, 42 years to the day after the former strongman seized power in a coup.

France's foreign minister suggested today that a possible way out of Libya's civil war would be to allow Muammar Gaddafi to stay in the country if he relinquishes power.

Embattled Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi is “prepared to leave”, emissaries have told France.

FRANCE is growing impatient with the lack of progress on reaching a political solution to the crisis in Libya, but officials denied Paris is in talks with Gaddafi’s government or could consider him not quitting power.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI’S regime reacted angrily to a NATO-led decision to provide funding to the three-month-old rebellion against his rule in Libya, describing as “piracy” plans to tap its assets frozen abroad.

THE authorities in Syria set a deadline of 15 days for people who had committed “unlawful acts” to give themselves up, as a wave of arrests was reported across the country.

Nato nations stressed their common goals in Libya – bringing an end to Muammar Gaddafi’s regime – as ministers met in Berlin amid a rift over the scope of the alliance’s military operation.

INTERNATIONAL powers meeting to discuss Libya’s future have called for the first time on Muammar Gaddafi to step aside, but NATO countries squabbled publicly over stepping up air strikes to help topple him.

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi resumed attacks on rebels today as France demanded Nato do more to destroy the Libyan regime's heavy weapons.

French forces in Ivory Coast have rescued the Japanese ambassador Okamura Yoshifumi and seven other diplomats from the violence-torn capital Abidjan, France’s foreign minister said.

Ivory Coast’s strongman leader Laurent Gbagbo holed up in a bunker defiantly maintaining he won the election four months ago even as troops backing the internationally recognised winner encircled the presidential residence.

A DEFIANT Muammar Gaddafi said Libya is “ready for battle”, as Western leaders mulled yesterday their next steps on the fifth day of UN-backed military strikes on his oil-rich country.

NICOLAS SARKOZY appointed a new government in a marathon weekend reshuffle with faithful allies taking top posts clearly aimed at pleasing his conservative ranks before France’s 2012 presidential election.

Nicolas Sarkozy appointed a new government in a marathon weekend reshuffle with faithful allies taking top posts clearly aimed at pleasing his conservative ranks before France’s 2012 presidential election.

Former lawyer Christine Lagarde was named finance minister and Jean-Louis Borloo, her predecessor, took over as the environment and energy minister in a reshuffle today of France’s month-old government.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to reshuffle his Cabinet today following the governing Conservative party’s poor performance in legislative elections last weekend.

Newly named French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin kept up the task today of trying to form a new government, while a poll suggested the former diplomat with an aristocratic bearing just might have a chance with the people.

Former French prime minister Alain Juppe, despite a conviction over a party financing scandal, said tonight he would not resign from political office while he appealed against his sentence.

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac yesterday offered public support to the man once seen as his likely successor but now disgraced after being convicted for his role in a party financing scandal.

French President Jacques Chirac today offered public support to the man once seen as his likely successor but now disgraced after being convicted for his role in a party financing scandal.

FORMER French Prime Minister Alain Juppe’s political career lay in tatters last night after he was convicted of corruption and banned from public office.

The French government has abandoned an idea of increasing wine tax to help fill its coffers.