Syria's President Bashar al-Assad yesterday won a pledge of support from regional ally Iran as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.

"Iran will never allow the resistance axis -- of which Syria is an essential pillar -- to break," said Jalili, a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on the one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other," he added.

The statement came a day after Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition.

Iran has accused Turkey and Gulf countries of arming the opposition in Syria, in collusion with the United States and Israel, to overthrow the regime ofTehran's key ally, Assad.

Arriving in Damascus, Jalili said only a "Syrian solution" would end the crisis.

In the same meeting, Assad said he was determined to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and cleanse the country of "terrorists," according to state news agency SANA.

"The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight terrorism without respite," Assad told Jalili.

Assad said his country "is able to defeat foreign plans targeting the resistance axis and Syria's role in it."

Correspondents say "axis of resistance" refers to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Islamist group I lamas in Gaza.

In Aleppo, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive said they were running low on ammunition as Assad's forces tried to encircle their stronghold in tire southern approaches to the country's biggest city.

Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an assault to recapture rebel-held districts of Aleppo after repelling fighters from most of Damascus.

"The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of Salaheddine," said Sheikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders, referring to the southwestern Aleppo neighbourhood which has seen heavy fighting over the last week.

Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district early

PHOTO: AFP yesterday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways.

Tanks have entered parts of Salaheddine and army snipers, using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops, hindering rebel movements.

As Assad's forces battle to

retake Aleppo, fighting has continued across the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, said more than 270 people -including 62 soldiers - were killed in Syria on Monday, one of the highest death tolls in the uprising.

64of those killed on Monday died in the city of Aleppo and its surrounding province, it added.

On Monday, Prime Minister I Iijab denounced Assad's "terrorist regime" after fleeing the country.

The defection of Hijab was a further sign of the isolation of Assad's government around an inner core of powerful members of his minority Alawite sect.

A spokesman for US President Barack Obama hailed Hijab's defection as a sign that the 40-year rule of Assad's family was "crumbling from within" and said he should step down.

Western leaders' repeated predictions of Assad's imminent collapse have so far proven premature, however