Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Friday called for restraint over the Syria crisis, after talks with his French counterpart who accused President Bashar Assad of being deaf to pressure.

"We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin told a news conference, the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.

Turkey warned Friday that the conflict in Syria risks turning into a civil war, while France's chief diplomat said it was now too late for the Syrian regime to finally implement reforms.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pointed to the new attacks by army defectors, "therefore I say there is a risk of transforming into civil war. It is now the right time to stop this massacre, and therefore the Arab initiative is important," he said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Friday that the "time has come to increase sanctions" against the Syrian regime.

"The situation is no longer sustainable," and "the ongoing repression is unacceptable," Juppe told reporters during a visit to Ankara.

The risk of civil war looms large over Syria as army defectors increasingly take aim at regime forces and diplomacy fails to resolve the escalating crisis, experts say.

"We are moving down that track and the longer the international community and the Arab League delay (action), the sooner we will be there," said Salman Shaikh, head of the Brookings Doha Center.

Syrian security forces on Friday shot dead 20 civilians, including four children, in the regions of Hama, Daraa, Homs and Reef Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees said, on the eve of an Arab League deadline for Syria to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters and as Turkey warned of the risk of civil war.

The latest bloodletting came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of massive security deployments to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, activists said.

More than two dozen websites belonging to the government of Syria are being hosted by servers in the United States, Canada and Germany, according to a report by Canadian researchers.

The report released Thursday said the operations raise legal questions because they may violate Canadian and U.S. sanctions against Syria, which has used police and military forces for the past eight months to put down a popular uprising.

The March 14-led opposition is seeking to withdraw confidence from Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour in its attempt to topple the government, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Friday.

Opposition sources told the daily that the government’s position at the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Syria proved that the cabinet is dominated by Hizbullah and the March 8 forces.

European nations said Thursday they have key Arab support for a U.N. resolution condemning human rights abuses by the Syrian government.

Diplomats from Germany, France and Britain tabled the resolution at the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee on Thursday for a vote expected next Tuesday, officials said.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, said Thursday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad should step aside amid intensifying pressure on his authorities to end violence.

"It's time for President Assad to stand down," Ashton said following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

The U.N. atomic watchdog said Thursday a visit by inspectors to Syria last month made "no progress" in clarifying the use of a suspected covert nuclear reactor allegedly bombed by Israel in 2007.

"Unfortunately, no progress was made in meetings with the Syrian authorities on obtaining the full access which we have requested," International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano said.