Syrians appeal for global action as tanks smash key towns

SYRIAN government forces shelled civilian areas in the central city of Hama for a second day, as residents buried their dead in public parks and gardens to avoid risking more lives at funerals.

Tank fire killed at least four people on top of the up to 85 who reportedly died in Hama on Sunday, the bloodiest day yet of the uprising.

''We cannot get to the cemetery,'' said activist Omar Habal. ''People are using the city gardens as graveyards to bury our dead.''

Damascus seemed unlikely to be impressed by closed-door discussions of the crisis due to take place at the United Nations Security Council in New York, which is divided over even passing a resolution condemning the violence.

Tanks also stormed the eastern town of al-Bukamal after a two-week siege as the military stepped up operations aimed at subduing dissent in Deir al-Zour province, bordering Iraq's Sunni heartland.

Democracy activists say they plan to exploit the increased attendance at mosques during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, when prayers are believed to carry more weight than at other times of year.

Damascus was quiet on the first day of Ramadan, with cafes empty and people staying out of the heat. But some talked about Hama. ''It is shameful,'' one woman said of the children who died there.

In Hama itself, Mr Habal said protesters wanted foreign governments to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus and expel Syrian diplomats from their capitals. ''We want action but not military intervention, we don't need that,'' he said. ''We need strong political pressure.''

The European Union said yesterday it had imposed travel bans and assets freezes on five unnamed Syrian officials, but measures imposed on 30 other senior figures have been shrugged off in Damascus.

Russia said it was ''seriously concerned'' about the level of casualties but implied government and opposition were equally at fault. China has also been reluctant to back punitive gestures, let alone action. Moscow and Beijing are unhappy at the way their support for the UN at the start of the Li

bya crisis was turned into a mandate for a NATO bombing campaign they now see as pursuing regime change.

The regime's message was clear, one activist suggested: ''We have the military power to crush dissent, even in a city where the entire population protested and which was visited by the US ambassador and mentioned by the Turkish Prime Minister as being a red line.

''The international community is powerless to save you if and when we decide to carry out the next massacre. We can escalate the conflict and we can turn it into a civil war if we want.''