photo, Syrian mourners carry the body of Rama Saada, 9, who was shot by Syrian forces in Douma, Damascus, Syria,Wednesday, April 18, 2012. (Photo: AP)
Syrian opposition activists called protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime Friday in a new test of its readiness to honour a peace plan UN chief Ban Ki-moon said it has so far failed to honour.
Government forces renewed bombardment of the flashpoint central city of Homs after security force killed seven civilians on Thursday, bringing to 127 the civilian death toll since a promised ceasefire took effect more than a week ago, human rights monitors said.
An advance team of UN military observers resumed work bolstered by the signing with the government on Thursday of a protocol governing their mission to monitor the six-point plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.
The UN chief urged the Security Council to take "early action" to bolster the mission although he acknowledged that boosting its numbers to 300 was "not a decision without risk."
Opposition activists called for a show of defiance against Assad's regime for the main weekly protests on the Muslim day of prayer and rest.
"We will win and Assad will be defeated," activists adopted as the slogan on their Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook Page that has been a major motor of the 13-month uprising which monitors say has left more than 11,000 people dead.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the rebel Khaldiyeh district of Homs -- Syria's third largest city -- came under heavy bombardment for another day.
"A shell is falling every five minutes on the neighbourhood," the watchdog said in a statement.
The UN chief said there was "deeply troubling evidence" that the government was pursuing its deadly crackdown despite agreeing to halt violence.
"The past few days, in particular, have brought reports of renewed and escalating violence, including the shelling of civilian areas, grave abuses by government forces and attacks by armed groups," Ban said.
The protocol signed on Thursday will pave the way for the UN observers to fan out across the country.
The advance party has visited the Daraa region, south of Damascus -- cradle of the uprising against Assad's regime -- but it has not so far been able to visit Homs where rebel neighbourhoods have come under repeated deadly bombardment, Ban said.
The UN chief said that, "for the mission to succeed, we require the Syrian government's full cooperation, particularly in ensuring the full freedom of movement and unfettered access and safety and security of personnel."
Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said the Security Council can "act very quickly" to pass a resolution allowing the bolstering of the observer mission, and diplomats said one could be ready early next week.
"We believe that the Security Council should continue supporting Kofi Annan, should continue supporting his plan and continue supporting the secretary general," Churkin told reporters.
However, Western ambassadors were cautious.
German ambassador Peter Wittig said the Security Council must make sure the "conditions are right" before sending the enlarged force.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "the opposition has fulfilled its obligations under the Annan plan" and that "groups on the ground have respected the ceasefire".
"We cannot say the same for the Syrian regime," he added.
Juppe was speaking at a meeting of senior envoys, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, seeking to pressure Assad's regime.
For her part, Clinton said "we need to start moving very vigorously in the Security Council for a Chapter Seven sanctions resolution, including travel, financial sanctions, an arms embargo."
A Chapter Seven resolution, which can be imposed by the Security Council if member states think peace is threatened by an act of aggression, authorises foreign powers to take measures -- including military options.
But Clinton acknowledged that Russia, a Syrian ally which has a veto on the Security Council, would probably not allow such a motion to pass.
Moscow insisted Friday that the Syria ceasefire was generally holding despite violations and should be viewed as an achievement that was saving the country from a broader civil war.
"Despite the existing violations and provocations, the ceasefire is holding overall. This is a great achievement whose loss could lead to a dangerous retreat to a new wave of violence," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
French presidential frontrunner, Socialist Francois Hollande, said Friday that he would support Paris joining a UN-sanctioned military intervention in Syria.
"If done within a UN framework, we would participate in such an intervention," Hollande told Europe 1 radio.
But the rebel Free Syrian Army called for outside military intervention against the Damascus regime even without Security Council approval.
Gulf Arab states Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been outspoken champions of arming the rebels.
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