Poorly-trained police to blame for Syria bloodbath, says Assad

President Bashar Assad’s comments came as a human rights activist said Syrian troops used heavy machine guns to attack a neighbourhood in the central city of Homs.

But his remarks were a rare acknowledgment of shortcomings within Syria’s powerful security agencies.

Mr Assad said thousands of police officers were receiving new training.

The brutal crackdown across Syria has sparked international condemnation, and the United States and European Union are planning new sanctions against the Syrian leadership.

More than 850 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests that erupted in mid-March, according to Syria’s top human rights organisation.

The Swiss government has now passed a measure restricting arms sales to Syria and freezing the assets and banning travel to Switzerland for 13 senior Syrian officials.

The arms embargo is largely theoretical because Switzerland has not exported weapons to Syria in more than a decade, but any Swiss banks holding assets of the 13 officials will have to declare them immediately to the government.

Mr Assad got a boost from an old ally, with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev saying Moscow will not support any United Nations resolutions that would open the way for interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Mr Medvedev said Mr Assad must be given a chance to fulfill his reform promises and warned against foreign interference.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has already spoken of the UK’s “utter condemnation” of recent violence in Syria.

“Only meaningful reform that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people can provide peace and stability for Syria in the long term,” he said.“The alternative – ever more violent repression – simply stokes up anger and frustration that will spill over in the future.”

Defence Minister Nick Harvey told MPs it was “highly likely” similar conclusions might be reached about referring Syrian Mr Assad to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the wake of action against Muammar Gaddafi.

The Syrian opposition has called for a general strike to protest against the regime but the appeal seemed to go largely unheeded.

Schools, shops and other businesses were open in the capital, Damascus, and other Syrian cities amid a tight security presence.

The call for a strike was an attempt by opposition forces to hit at Mr Assad’s regime from new angles: its economic underpinnings and ability to keep the country running during two months of widening battles.

But the fact that it apparently fell flat suggests that Mr Assad still has support in the business community and that a sweeping campaign of intimidation was working.

“Everything is open,” said a resident of the central city of Homs, which has seen daily anti-government protests in the past weeks. He said residents would not dare comply with the strike in light of the heavy security presence in the city.

The latest place to witness a harsh crackdown has been the western town of Talkalakh, where 27 people have been killed since last week, according to activists.

Syrians fleeing to Lebanon in recent days have described horrific scenes of execution-style killings and bodies in the streets in Talkalakh, which has been reportedly encircled by security forces.

More than 5,000 people have crossed from Talkalakh across a shallow river into Wadi Khaled on the Lebanese side of the border.