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European Union governments have agreed to ban imports of Syrian oil in a move to strengthen economic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
EU foreign ministers met in Poland on Friday, where they discussed a plan first announced two weeks ago to impose sweeping new economic sanctions against Syria, including an embargo on oil imports.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, expressed his support for new sanctions on Thursday following the "Friends of Libya" conference in Paris.
"We need tougher sanctions, more travel bans, more asset freezes, a clear message that the regime and what it is doing is unacceptable," he said.
The oil embargo marks a significant step for the EU, which has so far taken an incremental approach to sanctions against Assad as they try to force him to end a crackdown on anti-government protesters and relinquish power.
Friday's decision also expanded the list of entities subject to EU travel bans and asset freezes by seven, including four people.
"The sanctions have been agreed," an EU official told Reuters. "They ban the import of Syrian oil and petroleum products to the EU. Four more people and three entities are also included."
The measures will go into effect on Saturday.
Ongoing demonstrations
Security forces killed at least seven more people in Syria on Thursday, activists said, urging fresh anti-government protests on Friday under the banner of "death rather than humiliation."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces opened fire on protesters in the central region of Homs. According to the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), which organizes activists on the ground, armored cars entered the city.
Many activists have been relying on the Facebook group "Syrian Revolution 2011" to share news and communicate calls for mass demonstrations.
A senior Syrian official, meanwhile, said in a contested video posted on YouTube that he had resigned in disgust at hundreds of killings and thousands of arrests by state security forces.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Syrian military tank takes position in a residential street in the flashpoint city of Homs, 160 kms northeast of Damascus, August 2011.
Al-Jazeera
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