The United States said Monday it was working with "a broad array" of other countries to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the "outright murder of his own people."

Assad "has to cease the systematic violence, mass arrests, and the outright murder of his own people," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

King Abdullah and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who have urged reforms and an end to the bloodshed in Syria, met in the Saudi city of Jeddah, state news agency SPA reported Monday.

Saudi media said the meeting late on Sunday homed in on "regional and international developments," without a direct mention of the deadly crackdown on dissent in Syria.

Syrian troops backed by tanks clamped down Monday on the flashpoint province of Homs, a day after gunboats joined an assault that killed more than 20 people in Latakia city, activists said.

As the country's anti-regime uprising turned five months old, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said snipers shot dead an old man in the provincial town of Hula and reported another killing in Latakia.

At least 26 people were killed as the Syrian military opened fire on the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Sunday, with warships and tanks joining the assault, activists said.

But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.

U.S. President Barack Obama joined key British and Saudi allies Saturday in demanding that the Syrian regime "immediately" halt its brutal crackdown on protesters.

During a telephone conversation, Obama and Saudi King Abdullah expressed their "shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of violence against its citizens," the White House said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria after at least 16 people were killed as thousands of protesters rallied after Ramadan weekly prayers.

The Security Council will hold a special meeting next Thursday, diplomats at the United Nations announced.

U.S. President Barack Obama shrugged off his political woes and swept into New York City on Thursday for a star-studded fundraising blitz which could net his 2012 reelection bid $2.3 million.

The president, trying to bounce back from the worst week of his crisis-hit White House term so far, rubbed shoulders with Gwyneth Paltrow, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and R&B diva Alicia Keys at a top dollar fundraiser.

A Syrian activist stressed the Syrian regime launched a wide money transfer operation to Lebanon and Iran since the beginning of the anti-regime protests in March, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

“The amount of money that was smuggled by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and the Syrian regime as of the beginning of the popular uprising against him, reached more than $23 billion,” Secretary of the Syrian Conference for Change in Antalya Mohammed Karkouti told the daily.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed during a phone call Thursday on the need for a "transition to democracy" in Syria, the White House said.

Obama's office said he and Erdogan had also agreed on the need for an "immediate halt of all bloodshed and violence against the Syrian people" by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The Palestinians "strongly condemn" an Israeli decision to approve the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, a Palestinian official told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat denounced the Israeli interior ministry's announcement Thursday that it had given final approval for the construction of 1,600 homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.