International pressure grows on Syrian president

Syrian president Bashar Assad came under a new barrage of international pressure with the Turkish foreign minister urging him to stop killing protesters and US officials saying the Obama administration is preparing to explicitly demand his departure.

Even as Mr Assad held more than six hours of talks with the visiting Turkish minister yesterday, his military unleashed fresh attacks on restive areas, attacks that activists said killed more than 20 people.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he met the Syrian leader for more than six hours in the capital Damascus and discussed "concrete steps" to end the violent crackdown on protesters.

Rights groups say about 1,700 people have been killed since March. An aggressive new military offensive that began with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan a week ago has killed several hundred.

Speaking to reporters on his return to Turkey, Mr Davutoglu said the talks were cordial but did not say what specific steps they had discussed or whether Mr Assad had agreed to consider them.

"We discussed ways to prevent confrontation between the army and the people and tensions like those in Hama in the most open and clear way," Mr Davutoglu said, referring to the Syrian city that has become a flashpoint in the five-month-old uprising against Mr Assad's autocratic rule.

"The coming days will be important to see if the expectations are being met. We hope that internal peace and calm is achieved and steps for reform are taken."

Mr Assad rebuffed the pressure to scale back the crackdown. Instead, Syria's state-run news agency said he told Mr Davutoglu the government will relentlessly fight "terrorist groups" - a term Syrian authorities often use for government opponents even though most of those killed are unarmed, peaceful protesters.

Sana said Mr Assad also pledged to press ahead with reforms. But promises of reform of have rung hollow against the backdrop of the crackdown.

In Washington, officials said the administration will call outright for Mr Assad to give up power and hit the regime with tough new sanctions.

The State Department signalled for the first time that American efforts to engage the Syrian government are finally over. The White House is expected to lay out the tougher line by the end of this week, possibly tomorrow.

The officials said the move will be a direct response to Mr Assad's decision to step up the ruthlessness of the crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators by sending tanks into opposition hotbeds.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

President Barack Obama and other top US officials previously had said Mr Assad has "lost legitimacy" as a leader and that he either had to spearhead a transition to democracy or get out of the way.

They had not specifically demanded that he step down. The new formulation will make it clear that Mr Assad should leave power.