Syrian forces are said to have killed at least 30 people and moved into a town near the Turkish border.
Turkey's foreign minister has pressed President Bashar al-Assad to halt assaults on protests against his rule.
The National Organisation for Human Rights said most of the fatalities occurred when troops backed by tanks and armoured vehicles overran villages north of Hama, while four were killed in Binnish, around 30km from the border with Turkey.
Despite growing international condemnation, including a sudden wave of Arab criticism, Assad's forces also pursued an offensive in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, residents said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised an unceasing battle against the ‘terrorist groups’ he claims are behind the protests.
‘We will not waver in our pursuit of terrorist groups,’ Mr Assad told visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Mr Assad again promised what he said would be wide-ranging reforms and said he was open to ‘all help that brotherly and neighbouring might offer in that context’.
Activists say at least 1,600 civilians have died in the unrest, making it one of the bloodiest of the upheavals sweeping the Arab world.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has described Syria's uprising as a domestic issue for Turkey because of their 850km shared border, met Assad to urge him to call off the crackdown.
Mr Davutoglu held six hours of meetings with Syrian officials, including a two-hour session alone with Assad.
There was no immediate official comment after their meeting.
Syria's neighbour has grown increasingly critical of the violence but earned a sharp rebuke on Sunday when an Assad adviser said Syria would not accept interference in its affairs.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked Mr Davutoglu to reinforce a demand from Washington that Syria return the army to barracks immediately and release prisoners.
Syria has faced nearly five months of protests against Assad's 11-year rule, inspired by Arab revolts which overthrew leaders in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year.
Last week Assad sent troops and tanks to quell the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Hama in central Syria and the army launched a similar assault on Sunday against Deir al-Zor.
Residents in Deir al-Zor said that dozens had been killed since tanks and armoured vehicles barrelled into the city.
Syrian authorities have denied that any Deir al-Zor assault took place, with the official state news agency saying that 'not a single tank has entered Deir al-Zor' and reports of tanks in the city were 'the work of provocateur satellite channels'.
The official SANA news agency said yesterday that the military was starting to pull out of Hama after it said they had helped restore order. Residents said there were still tanks in parts of the city and security forces were making arrests.
About 1,500 people were detained in Hama's Jarajima district, the Observatory said.
Activists say at least 130 people were killed in Hama, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, and one group has put the death toll at over 300.
Like most of Syria, ruled by Assad's minority Alawite family, Hama and Deir al-Zor are mainly Sunni cities, and the crackdowns there resonate with Sunnis, who form the majority in the region and govern most Arab countries.
