EU plans new Syria sanctions

BEIRUT (AP) - European officials said Wednesday they plan harsher economic sanctions on Syria, including a possible flight ban, as ally Russia pursued its own rival effort to resolve the crisis by trying to broker talks between the regime and opposition.

Amid the diplomacy, President Bashar Assad's regime pushed ahead with a relentless offensive on the city of Homs, the epicenter of the 11-month-old uprising. Troops with mortars and heavy machine guns blasted at least four restive neighborhoods in the city, killing at least 53 people, activists said. The assault has reportedly left hundreds dead the past five days.

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Felisha and Gerriand Hunter

Amnesty International warned Homs was "turning into a major humanitarian crisis." It urged Russia to use its influence to stop the Syrian military from using heavy weapons in residential areas.

In online video taken by activists, the screech of rockets and the blasts of impacts can be heard, raising a cloud of smoke and dust from an apartment tower in Homs' Baba Amr district. Fires blaze from a house and from the city's refinery hit in the fighting, and buildings across the urban landscape have gaping holes and crumbling walls from days of shelling.

Russia and the West had an acrimonious falling out over how to deal with Syria's crisis after Moscow and Beijing over the weekend blocked a Western-Arab attempt to bring U.N. pressure on President Bashar Assad to step down.

Now each camp is pushing ahead on rival tracks. Russia has taken a line close to Assad's position, saying reforms and dialogue can bring an end to the fighting, while avoiding calls for his departure. Western and Arab nations have moved to isolate Assad while considering forming a coalition of nations to provide help to the opposition. The U.S. says it is just a matter of time before Assad goes.

Turkey, a former ally of Assad that fell out with him over the bloodshed, is proposing an international conference in Istanbul or elsewhere in the Mideast to discuss creating an "international platform that would represent the conscience of humanity" to help Syrians, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a press conference.

He dismissed Assad's promises to Russia that he would carry out reforms, saying he had made and broken similar promises to Turkey.

In Brussels, a senior European Union official said foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc will decide on harsher sanctions against Syria aimed at weakening Assad when they meet on Feb. 27. The EU has already halted oil purchases from Syria, among other sanctions.

The official said the new measures may include bans on the import of Syrian phosphates, on commercial flights between Syria and Europe, and on financial transactions with the country's central bank. The European Union takes 40 percent of Syria's phosphate exports. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with EU rules.