Turkey plans an international conference "as soon as possible" with regional players and world powers to solve the Syrian crisis, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"We are determined to establish a broad-based forum to promote international understanding with all countries concerned" with the developments in Syria, Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised interview.

Armed "terrorist" groups on Wednesday attacked the oil refinery in Syria's embattled central city of Homs, setting two storage tanks ablaze, state television reported.

"Armed terrorist groups shelled the refinery in Homs, setting two fuel depots on fire," the television said, adding later that the fire had been brought under control.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, back from talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, pointedly declined to say Wednesday whether Moscow asked the embattled leader to go, stressing that Syrians themselves should decide his fate.

"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," Lavrov told reporters.

Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed.

The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells was launched at daybreak and continued during the day. State television said a car bomb had ripped through the central city, killing and wounding civilians as well as security officers.

Speaker Nabih Berri slammed on Wednesday March 14 coalition MPs who have accused the Lebanese army of deploying in northern areas bordering Syria at the behest of the Assad regime.

“The army is carrying out the duties that its leader Gen. Jean Qahwaji has ordered,” Berri told An Nahar and As Safir dailies. “This is a patriotic institution that implements the government’s policy of distancing itself from the events in Syria.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Saniora revealed on Wednesday that he discussed with President Michel Suleiman a day earlier the controversial deployment of the Lebanese army in northern areas bordering Syria.

“We discussed a lot of issues, including the government (crisis), the situation in the region, the economy, the deployment of the army in the North, the security situation and (verbal) attacks on the president and the premier,” Saniora told An Nahar daily.

Russia's U.N. ambassador on Tuesday slammed efforts to "poison" relations between his country and the Arab world after Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin made the comments as he strongly rejected Arab internet reports that he had threatened the prime minister of Qatar during talks at the United Nations last week on Syria.

The United States on Tuesday voiced skepticism of promises by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia's foreign minister and said that he should instead immediately end the violence.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States would withhold judgment on Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Damascus but criticized Assad for making new pledges of domestic reforms.

Senior Republican senator John McCain urged the United States Tuesday to consider arming the opposition fighting the forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

"We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop," he told reporters.

Syria and Turkey are negotiating the conditions for the release of 49 detained Turkish intelligence officers, a radio station close to the government in Damascus said on Tuesday.

Sham FM said the officers had been detained while operating undercover, although there has been no word from Ankara on any such arrests.