A Syrian military assault on Homs has killed dozens of people, as world powers scramble for a diplomatic strategy to end the violence in the country after the defeat of a UN Security Council resolution.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus on Tuesday to press President Bashar al-Assad to implement democratic reforms after Russia and China vetoed any UN-backed measures against the Syrian government over its crackdown on the 11-month uprising.
Ahead of his visit, Lavrov said condemnation of Moscow's veto had verged on "hysteria". He said Moscow sought "the swiftest stabilisation of the situation in Syria on the basis of the swiftest implementation of democratic reforms whose time has come".