The Syrian regime rejected a UN call for a unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday as rebels confronted columns of tanks and troops sent to retake a town on the road to main battleground city Aleppo.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime, on the back foot with rebels controlling swathes of northern Syria, insisted the insurgents must stop the violence first as it turned down the call issued the previous day by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

Meanwhile, Turkey's top military commander, General Necdet Ozel, warned of a tougher response if Syria keeps hitting Turkish soil, as he visited the town of Akcakale, where cross-border shelling killed five civilians last week.

"We have retaliated (for Syrian shelling) and if it continues, we'll respond more strongly," General Ozel said, as he inspected Turkish troops on a tour of the heavily fortified border zone.

Following the deadly shelling in Akcakale on Wednesday of last week, Turkey’s parlia-

"We told Ban Ki-moon to send emissaries to the countries which have influence on the armed groups, so that they put an end to the violence," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said.

Syria's main exiled opposition coalition the Syrian National Gouncil will in a "matter of days" set up in a rebel-controlled area inside the country, a top member of the group said yesterday.

Ward said that SNC leader Abdel Basset Sayda and other members of the executive committee will regularly travel to Syria via Atme, a village in Idlib province in the northwest which is a key rear base for the rebels near the Turkish border.

ment approved the use of military force if necessary against Syria. Nato has also pledged support to Turkey, if required.

The sabre-rattling added to growing fears of wider regional fallout from the conflict ravaging Syria, in which activists say more than 32,000 people have died, mostly civilians.

Residents of the Old City neighbourhood of Homs, meanwhile, desperately pleaded for assistance as the Observatory reported heavy shelling of rebel belts across the central city and nearby Qusayr, both besieged for months.

The Britain-based group reported at least 50 people killed across Syria yesterday - 18 rebels, 16 soldiers and 16 civilians.