U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay called Wednesday for urgent international action to protect civilians in Syria, as troops continued to shell the city of Homs, a center of protest in the country.

"I am appalled by the Syrian government's willful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery and other heavy weaponry in what appear to be indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in the city," said a statement from Pillay.

China on Monday denied U.S. accusations it was protecting the Syrian regime, after drawing international criticism for vetoing a U.N. resolution condemning a deadly crackdown on protests by Damascus.

Beijing called on both sides in the conflict to halt violence, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused China and Russia of "protecting the brutal regime in Damascus", calling their veto of the resolution a "travesty".

Russia on Sunday blamed Western powers for the U.N. Security Council's failure to pass a resolution condemning the violence in Syria, saying they had failed to make an additional effort for a consensus.

"The authors of the draft Syria resolution, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter after Russia and China's use of their veto sparked outrage. "The result is known," he added.

An official Syrian newspaper on Sunday hailed the Russian and Chinese double veto of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on the regime's crackdown, calling it a catalyst for the speeding up of reform.

The daily government mouthpiece Tishreen was the only Syrian paper to comment on the veto, which drew swift condemnation from world powers.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali called Sunday on all countries to cut off diplomatic relations with Syria over the violence there.

"We have to expel Syrian ambassadors from Arab and other countries," Jebali said during a panel discussion on the Middle East at a security conference in the southern German city of Munich.

The opposition Syrian National Council on Sunday slammed the Russian and Chinese veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria as giving the regime of President Bashar Assad a "license to kill."

The SNC said in a statement "Syrians and others around the world" had looked to the Security Council to issue a strongly worded resolution, "one that would clearly condemn the Syrian regime's crimes; the atrocity and impunity with which it kills civilians, including women and children; and the genocide it commits in exterminating entire families.

Russia will not stop selling arms to Syria, a top defense official said Thursday, as Moscow stands by its longtime ally despite mounting international condemnation over the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country is not violating any international obligations by selling weapons to Damascus.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins said Thursday that Hizbullah has stressed the need to continue its dialogue with the world body.

In remarks to al-Mustaqbal daily, Watkins said that despite the party’s frustration from some of the remarks made by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon during his visit to Beirut last month, Hizbullah has expressed its respect for “the integrity of the U.N. and the necessity to keep the dialogue open.”

France on Tuesday pressed Syrian authorities to shed light on the death of French television reporter Gilles Jacquier, who was killed as he covered the country's 10-month-old uprising.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, visiting the United Nations in a push for a resolution on Syria's bloodshed, said that a report by Arab League monitors was not definitive on the origin of the fire that killed 43-year-old journalist.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins said Friday that he discussed with Hizbullah official Ammar Moussawi the requirements of Security Council resolution 1701 that “still have to be met.”

Following his talks with Moussawi, who is the head of Hizbullah’s international relations department, Watkins said: “We discussed the areas where 1701 has worked very well so far, including the relative stability that has prevailed in south Lebanon, but also the requirements of 1701 that still have to be met in order to be able to move from the current cessation of hostilities to a permanent ceasefire.”