Syria unrest: Tanks 'advance' on besieged city of Hama
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Government tanks in Syria have reportedly advanced deep into the besieged central city of Hama to put down opposition protests.
Residents who spoke to Reuters said tanks had reached Orontes Square in the city centre, focus of mass rallies against President Bashar al-Assad.
The reported advance followed a new bombardment of the city of 800,000.
The UN Security Council is split over how to respond to the bloodshed, which the UN secretary general has condemned.
Human rights groups say at least 140 people have been killed in the Syrian unrest since Sunday, mainly in Hama, adding to a civilian death toll believed to be more than 1,600 since March.
Protesters were inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Mr Assad has promised reforms, but blames the violence on "armed criminal gangs" backed by unspecified foreign powers.
Access to events in Syria has been severely restricted for international journalists and it is rarely possible to verify accounts by witnesses and opposition activists.
'Finishing us off'
The Reuters news agency quoted residents of Hama as saying tanks had re-entered the city on Wednesday morning, reaching Orontes Square.
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“Start Quote
The regime is using the media focus on the Hosni Mubarak trial to finish off Hama”
End Quote Hama resident
Earlier, reports spoke of columns of armoured vehicles heading towards the city from which the sound of shelling could be heard.
About 100 tanks and troop carriers made for Hama, while a further 200 were seen near the eastern town of Deir al-Zour, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.
One unnamed Hama resident, who spoke by satellite phone, told Reuters: "The regime is using the media focus on the Hosni Mubarak trial [which opened in Egypt on Wednesday] to finish off Hama."
Communication with the city is all but cut off completely, as are water and electricity, correspondents say.
BBC map
Reports this week speak of shells hitting residential areas where no demonstrations took place, and families have reportedly been fleeing through side roads amid the heavy gunfire.
Some families who left described the situation as worse than the 1980s, when the late President Hafez Assad, father of the current leader, crushed an uprising, leaving at least 10,000 people dead and the old quarter flattened.
The continuing violence drew a strong response from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday.
Mr Assad "must be aware that under international humanitarian law, this is accountable", he said.
"I believe that he lost all sense of humanity," he added.
Divided council
Talks at the 15-member Security Council in New York ended inconclusively on Tuesday and are due to pick up again shortly.
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Amid concern that Syria, a strategically important state in the Middle East, may be slipping into civil war, Western states on the 15-strong body have been pushing for a resolution condemning Mr Assad's crackdown.
The argument is whether it should be a formal resolution or a less substantial statement.
Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said the latest wording put forward by Western members was "detrimental" to peace efforts.
"It is no secret that our Western colleagues believe that Damascus and the Syrian government are to blame for everything," he told Russian TV.
"There are a number of other members of the Security Council, Russia among them, who see the situation as more complicated."
Moscow, he said, believed the Security Council should "do its utmost to encourage all sides in Syria to hold a dialogue" on ending the crisis.
China, Brazil, India and South Africa also oppose action by the Security Council on Syria, suggesting it may lead to international military involvement, as in Libya.
But the UK, France, Germany, Portugal and the US believe a formal resolution is the best way to send a strong signal to Mr Assad.
Meanwhile, a number of US senators, both Democratic and Republican, are calling for new US sanctions that would punish companies which invest in Syria's energy sector.
And US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received Syrian opposition activists at the state department for the first time on Tuesday, in a strong signal that the Obama administration has decided to forge ahead with isolating President Assad, the BBC's Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.
Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker (right) meets Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti Talks have begun in Luxembourg between Italy and the EU
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