Over 30 people have reportedly been killed in fresh clashes in Syria on the day the UN Secretary General called for an immediate end to fighting in the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops also killed 23 people, most of them civilians but some of them police, as President Bashar al-Assad's regime pressed its brutal crackdown on dissent.
"Twenty-one people, some civilians and others police officers, were killed in Homs on Monday during operations by the army and the security services in several neighbourhoods of the city," the Observatory said.
Troops shot dead two other civilians - one in Idlib province in the northwest and the other a 13-year-old boy in Hama, a protest centre north of Homs, the watchdog added.
Army defectors reportedly also killed 11 Syrian soldiers today.
"Gunmen suspected of being army defectors blew up a bomb by remote control as an army vehicle passed by Ehssem in the countryside of the (northwestern province of Idlib), killing an officer and three soldiers, and wounding others," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP in Nicosia.
The Britain-based watchdog said that another seven soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen suspected too of being army defectors in the flashpoint central province of Homs.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, today urged Assad to immediately stop the killings of civilians, a day after the Arab League called for "national dialogue" to end the violence.
"There are continuous killings of civilian people. These killings must stop immediately," Ban said in Bern.
"I told Assad: 'Stop before it is too late'.
"It is unacceptable that 3,000 people have been killed. The UN is urging him again to take urgent action."
Ban also called on Assad to accept an international commission of inquiry into rights violations ordered by the UN Human Rights Council in April. Damascus has blocked investigators from entering the country.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network spurring protests, meanwhile issued a statement accusing security forces of intensifying their crackdown on doctors who treat wounded demonstrators.
"Security forces recently intensified their campaign against doctors, hospitals and private clinics suspected of treating people wounded in pro-freedom rallies" without notifying security services, the LCC said.
Doctors are required to immediately notify security services of the arrival of a wounded person, regardless of the severity of his injuries, which invariably leads to the patient's arrest, it said.
The Violations Documenting Centre, a partner of the activist network, said 250 doctors and pharmacists have been arrested since mid-March, 25 of them in the past few weeks.
The violence in Syria prompted Arab foreign ministers to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday at Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
Ministers agreed to renew contact with the Syrian government and opposition groups to spur the launch of a national dialogue within 15 days.
Assad's regime blames "armed gangs" for the violence that has wracked Syria for the past seven months, but activists say most of the deaths are caused by security forces putting down non-violent protests.
The Arab League has called for talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups to take place at the League's headquarters in Cairo within 15 days.
However, at an emergency meeting in Egypt, Arab foreign ministers decided not to suspend Syria from the organisation.
Disappointed protesters began banging on the doors of the Arab League building as Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani read out the decision.
