The United States today announced it was closing its embassy in Syria due to the worsening security situation, further isolating Damascus over its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.
The US state department said in a statement that the embassy had suspended operations and that US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, and all embassy personnel had departed the country.
US president Barack Obama earlier vowed to apply sanctions and step up pressure on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government to leave power but said the Syrian crisis could be resolved without outside military intervention.
"I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention. And I think that's possible," Mr Obama told NBC's Today show in an interview broadcast today.
Syrian forces bombarded Homs today, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National Council opposition group said.
"The tally that we have received from various activists in Homs since the shelling started at six this morning is 50, mostly civilians," the group's Catherine al-Talli said.
"The regime is acting as if it were immune to international intervention and has a free hand to use violence against the people," she said.
The bombardment came a day after the United States promised harsher sanctions against Damascus in response to Russian and Chinese vetoes of a draft UN resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Mr Assad to step aside.
"This is the most violent bombardment in recent days," said one activist in Syria who was in touch with Homs residents.
Another activist said forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad were using multiple rocket launchers in the attack.
Arab satellite television stations broadcast live footage from Homs. Explosions could be heard and smoke could be seen rising from some buildings.
Activists said more than 200 people were killed on Friday night when tanks and artillery blasted the Khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs, a turbulent city that has become a centre of resistance to Mr Assad's rule.
The latest assault, which began shortly after 2am (midnight GMT), appeared to be more widely targeted, with explosions in Khalidiya, Baba Amro, Bayada and Bab Dreib neighbourhoods, the activists said.
Fifteen people were killed in Baba Amro and 150 wounded, one resident said by telephone. "They want to drive the Free Syrian Army out," said Hussein Nader, referring to the rebel force of army deserters and gunmen who have controlled parts of the city for months.
"Rockets are falling seconds apart on the same target." Activists also said Zabadani, a town north-west of Damascus near the Lebanese border which has been largely under the control of Mr Assad's opponents for several weeks, had come under fire today.
Elsewhere, Syrian army defectors announced today the formation of a higher military council to "liberate" the country from president Bashar al-Assad's rule.
The council, named "The Higher Revolutionary Council" and designed to supersede the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said its head was general Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, the highest ranking deserter who had fled to Turkey.
China's state-run media today defended the government's rejection of the UN resolution pressing Mr Assad to abandon power, saying Western intervention in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq showed the error of forced regime change.
The People's Daily, the top newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, set out in a commentary the clearest defence of the decision to join Russia at the weekend in vetoing a draft UN resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Mr Assad to quit after months of worsening bloodshed.
The newspaper suggested that Chinese distrust of Western intervention lay behind the veto, which drew condemnation from Western governments with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton calling it a "travesty".
"The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate and numbers of civilian casualties keep rising," the newspaper, which echoes government thinking, said in the commentary.
"Vetoing the draft Security Council resolution does not mean we are giving free rein to letting this heart-rending state of affairs continue."The author of the commentary used the pen name 'Zhong Sheng', which can mean "voice of China" and is often used to give the government's position on foreign policy.
The conflicting Chinese and Western positions on Syria exposed a more general rift about how China should use its rising influence and whether it should foresake its long-standing, albeit unevenly applied, principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic conflicts.
Russia and China's veto came a day after activists say that Syrian forces bombarded a district of the city of Homs, killing more than 200 people in the worst bloodshed of the 11-month Syrian uprising.
All 13 other members of the Security Council voted for the resolution, which also called for a withdrawal of Syrian troops from towns and the beginning of a transition to democracy.
But China, not its Western critics, acted "responsibly" for the sake of the Syrian people, the People's Daily said in the commentary.
"Currently, the situation in Syria is extremely complex. Simplistically supporting one side and suppressing the other might seem a helpful way of turning things around, but in fact it would be sowing fresh seeds of disaster," said the paper.
China's siding with Russia over Syria could add to irritants with the United States. Vice President Xi Jinping is due to visit there next week, burnishing his credentials as the Communist Party's likely next top leader.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said she was "disgusted" by Russia and China's vetoes."Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands," she said.
China and the United States have also sparred over Iran, which faces tightened Western sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.The People's Daily laid bare broader Chinese concerns about US-backed action in the Arab world and beyond.
China is one of the five permanent UN Security Council members that hold the power to veto resolutions.
In March, China abstained from a Security Council vote that authorised Western military intervention in Libya.
The resolution became the basis for a Nato air campaign that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gadafy, despite misgivings from Beijing and Moscow about the expanded campaign, which they said went beyond the resolution.
Reuters