The U.N. human rights chief on Thursday urged Syria to halt an assault on its people, saying that it was "deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission."

"We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The U.N. Security Council will on Wednesday discuss a resolution proposed by European nations condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on opposition protests.

Russia and China have strongly opposed Security Council action on Syria, but Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said: "If anyone votes against that resolution, or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience."

Turkey will not close its doors to refugees fleeing the repression in Syria, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday as he expressed his sadness about unrest across the border.

Erdogan, who has become increasingly critical of the President Bashar Assad's regime, also urged authorities in Damascus to demonstrate more tolerance towards its civilians.

A Syrian activist says elite government forces are heading to the country's north in possible preparation for an attack on a town where soldiers reportedly joined an anti-government uprising.

The activist, Mustafa Osso, says witnesses told him that long lines of tanks and thousands of troops were on the move toward Jisr al-Shughour on Wednesday.

Three wounded Syrians arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday via an illegal crossing at the country's northern border with Syria, one of whom died in hospital.

"Three wounded Syrians were evacuated from their country late Tuesday via the unofficial crossing of Umm Jamee in the Wadi Khaled region" in northern Lebanon, a security official told Agence France Presse.

Syrian Ambassador to France Lamia Shakkour on Tuesday denied that she had quit her post, in interviews with Syria’s state TV and Al-Arabiya TV, shortly after the France 24 network aired an audio statement purportedly from her saying she was quitting.

In her phone interview with Al-Arabiya, Shakkour said her voice was imitated by the person who called France 24, stressing that she did not speak to any television.

Western powers on Tuesday stepped up moves for a U.N. Security Council vote condemning Syria's crackdown on opposition protests, despite strong opposition from Russia and China.

France, Britain and the United States are considering pressing for a vote by the 15-member Security Council on a resolution that could embarrass Russia and China by forcing them into a veto.

One person died from gunshot wounds as 41 refugees fleeing unrest in Syria crossed the border into Turkey over the weekend, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"A man with gunshot wounds died in an ambulance heading to a hospital in Turkey, after he crossed the border in a serious condition," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun have held talks in an attempt to end the government impasse, al-Liwaa daily reported Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, Nasrallah intentionally did not address local issues during the opening session of an intellectual conference on Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei in Beirut on Monday.

Some 120 Syrian police officers taking part in security operations alongside the army in the northwest were killed by "armed gangs" in the town of Jisr Shugour on Monday, state-run news agency SANA quoted a Syrian official as saying.

"The armed groups are committing a veritable massacre. They have mutilated bodies and thrown others into the Assi river," state television reported earlier. "They have burned government buildings."