Annan holds crunch talks with Syria's Assad

Kofi Annan on Tuesday met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for crunch talks amid global outrage over the Houla massacre of more than 100 people, as the UN said most of them had been summarily executed.

On his arrival in Damascus on Monday, UN and Arab League peace envoy Annan called the "tragic" massacre in the central region "an appalling moment with profound consequences."

The international community has reacted with horror over the deaths of at least 108 people at the village of Taldu near Houla on Friday and Saturday, among them 49 children and 34 women, many shot dead at point-blank range.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated on Tuesday that fewer than 20 of the 108 Houla victims were killed by artillery and tank fire.

"Most of the rest of the victims in Taldu, one of the areas of Houla, were summarily executed in two separate incidents," UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville said.

Local residents blamed the executions on a paramilitary group that "essentially supports the government forces," he added.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday announced the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador in response to the Houla killings, and said Paris would host a new meeting of the Friends of Syria group in July.

Australia also expelled Syria's top diplomat over the "hideous and brutal" massacre, with Foreign Minister Bob Carr saying he expected other countries to follow suit.

"This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion to the Syrian government," Carr said, adding Syrian charge d'affaires Jawdat Ali and another unnamed official had 72 hours to leave the country.

Germany also said on Tuesday it would expel the Syrian ambassador, national agency DPA reported, saying that he too has 72 hours to leave.

Assad received Annan in Damascus, state news agency SANA reported, a day after the former UN chief said he intended to hold "serious and frank discussions" with Syria's president.

Annan did not elaborate, but his comments reflected intensifying pressure on his mission aimed at ending almost 15 months of bloodshed in Syria.

The Assad government has been using brutal force to crush an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, triggering a low-level insurgency by some regime opponents who have taken up arms.

The violence has killed more than 13,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog.

And it has persisted despite the presence of more than 280 UN military observers as part of Annan's six-point blueprint aimed at ending the conflict.

At least 19 people were killed on Tuesday as fierce fighting was reported across Syria, including seven in central Homs province where last week's massacre occurred, said the Observatory.

After news of the Houla killings emerged on Saturday, Hollande said Syria's leaders would have to answer for their "murderous folly," and Pope Benedict XVI called on Syria's religious communities to cooperate to bring peace to the country.

Canada called on the UN Security Council to take "stronger diplomatic action," including economic sanctions against the regime over its "senseless slaughter of its own people."

The UN Security Council -- where Syrian allies Russia and China wield veto powers -- had on Sunday condemned the Damascus government's use of heavy artillery in the assault on Houla.

Annan told reporters in Damascus that he was "personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla," saying the UN body was right to condemn it.

He urged Damascus to take "bold steps" to signal it is serious in its intention to resolve the crisis peacefully.

"And this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun."

However, the Security Council's condemnation of the Syrian government's role in the massacre has done little to bring the international powers together to end the crisis.

Britain and France had proposed a text making an even stronger condemnation of the Assad government, but Russia defended its key Middle East ally at the Security Council and said both sides bore responsibility.

"Here we have a situation where both sides clearly had a hand in the fact that peaceful citizens were killed," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Assad's domestic opponents renewed their call to the international community to help Syrians defend themselves.

"The Syrian National Council calls (on) brothers and friends of the Syrian people to help before it's too late," the exiled group said in a statement.

The Free Syrian Army has warned that unless the international community takes concrete action it will no longer be bound by Annan's plan.

Israeli, Syria's arch-foe, on Tuesday branded Assad a "murderer" and urged support for the Syrian people.

"The reactions until now have been declarations; unfortunately, declarations don't stop murders and assassinations," President Shimon Peres said at a joint news conference with his German counterpart Joachim Gauck.

"I think the time has come to help the Syrians achieve peace and regain their freedom," he added.

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