Turkey ratcheted up the economic and political pressure on Syria as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned President Bashar al-Assad against feeding 'on the blood of the innocent'.
Turkey said it would halt joint oil exploration with Syria and threatened to stop electricity supplies as relations between the two neighbours soured further over the Damascus regime's bloody crackdown on demonstrators.
Erdogan said that Ankara had abandoned hope that Assad, once a close ally, would respond to international demands to halt violence and initiate democratic reforms.
"A future cannot be built on the blood of the innocent, otherwise history will remember those leaders as the ones who feed on blood. And you Assad, you are now coming closer to opening that page of history," Erdogan said.
Assad's regime is becoming increasingly isolated over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protests that has left around 3,500 people dead since March according to the United Nations.
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Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Turkey's Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has halted joint exploration with the Syrian national oil company and has also threatened to cut off power supplies supplies.
"We are currently exporting electricity (to Syria). If the situation continues like this, we may be in a position to revise all these decisions," Yildiz said.
Turkey has been exporting electricity to Syria since 2006.
However, the minister said halting the delivery of water from Turkey's Euphrates river to Syria was not among sanctions being considered.
"We have no decision made regarding water," said Yildiz, adding that a final decision on the electricity supplies would be made by Erdogan.
"We cannot act as if nothing had happened."
Tuesday's moves follow weekend attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions in three Syrian cities by demonstrators angry at Ankara's support for an Arab League decision to suspend Syria.
Thousands of pro-regime protestors armed with knives and batons attacked the missions in Damascus as well as the cities of Aleppo and Latakia on Saturday, prompting Ankara to seek a formal apology from Syrian authorities.
No-one was injured, but Turkey evacuated the dependants of diplomats from Syria over increasing security concerns.
Erdogan, once a close political ally and a personal friend of the Syrian leader, has for months expressed frustration at Assad's failure to listen to his people.
"We no longer expect the Assad government to show honest, persuasive, brave and determined leadership," Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Tuesday.
"No one expects him to respond to the demands of the international community anymore."
Erdogan's government had been expected to announce sanctions against Syria as early as October but escalating Kurdish rebel attacks and a massive killer quake in eastern Turkey delayed the plans.
"Sanctions will be in place if the situation continues like it is today," a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP. "But we are considering smart sanctions, sanctions that would not harm Syrian people."
In Morocco, where Arab League foreign ministers are to meet on Wednesday to discuss the Syria crisis, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed his country's disappointment with the Assad regime.
"We gave them a last chance but they were unable to seize it," Davutoglu said, according to the private NTV television.
