Britain floated the notion today of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad leaving power with immunity from prosecution while the opposition said at least 100 more people were killed in the country's 19-month revolt.
"Anything, anything, to get that man out of the country and to have a safe transition in Syria," prime minister David Cameron told Al Arabiya news network in Abu Dhabi before flying to Saudi Arabia.
Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that Syria, where some 32,000 people have died in the revolt against Assad, could end up a collapsed state like Somalia, prey to warlords and militias.
More than 100 people were killed across the country on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Among them was the brother of Syria's parliament speaker, assassinated by gunmen in Damascus, state television said. He was the latest victim in a deadly campaign against perceived Assad supporters and their families.
Air strikes killed 17 people, including women and children, in the Damascus suburb of Kfar Batna, according to the Syrian Observatory, an opposition watchdog based in Britain.
Video footage of the raid's aftermath, which could not be verified, showed a toddler with a severed head and the torso of a young man, his head and limbs gathered near him by rescuers.
Insurgents killed 12 soldiers and wounded 20 in an attack on a convoy of off-road vehicles in the northern province of Idlib.
Air strikes and artillery barrages unleashed by the Syrian military in the last few weeks have devastated whole districts of the capital, as well as parts of towns and cities elsewhere.
Yet, for all their firepower, Assad's forces seem no closer to crushing their lightly armed opponents, who in turn have so far proved unable to topple the Syrian leader.
Reuters