Western nations have launched a new bid to get the UN Security Council to condemn Syria for its deadly crackdown on opposition demonstrators, diplomats said.
Syria's refusal to let a UN humanitarian assessment team into the protest city of Daraa was raised by Britain at a Security Council meeting on Monday.
Britain is leading lobbying for a Security Council resolution warning Syria over its crackdown, diplomats said. Western nations are in parallel stepping up a campaign to stop Syria getting a seat on the UN Human Rights Council at a vote next week.
But efforts to pressure Syria are being held back by opposition from Russia, China and other countries on the 15-nation Security Council who say the French-British-US coalition staging air attacks in Libya has gone beyond its UN mandate.
Syria again angered its critics by refusing to let a UN humanitarian team into Daraa on Sunday.
Syrian security forces rounded up thousands of men as they went house to house in a bid to crush an anti-regime protest movement in the coastal city of Banias on Monday, as shots rang out in a Damascus suburb surrounded by troops, activists said.
Protests organisers meanwhile called for a day of solidarity Tuesday with "prisoners of conscience" held in Syrian jails, according to a statement posted on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page.
Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said water, electricity and telephone lines have been cut off in Banias, on Syria's northwest Mediterranean coast.
"There were house-to-house raids overnight and it continued on Monday morning," Abdul Rahman said, adding that the men were being rounded up for questioning in a stadium based on lists of names.
"Thousands of men, including youths, have been rounded up by the army and security forces ... to be interrogated and they are being beaten.
More than 400 are still being held," the activist said. Hundreds are feared to have died in the city which has become a symbol of the protests against President Bashar al-Assad. "We were expecting to go in with a mission to Daraa yesterday.
That was postponed by the government and I am seeking some more information about why," UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters.
"We have also been assured that they can go in later this week, which I very much hope will be possible," Amos added.
Russia, and allies who oppose non-intervention in a country's internal affairs, blocked a Security Council statement last week on Syria. Before that they opposed sending a Council message on Yemen.
The European Union and United States have already launched sanctions against the Syrian regime, including asset freezes and travel bans against leading members.
Britain is now looking to act "swiftly" on UN Security Council action on Syria this week, said a council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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