The British-born wife of Syria's president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the 11-month uprising against his regime began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

"The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role," The Times quoted Asma Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was appalled by the Syrian government's intensified onslaught on the protest city of Homs which he called "unacceptable before humanity."

Ban joined a growing global chorus of condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's actions since a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria was vetoed by Russia and China on Saturday.

A senior Treasury Department official will travel to Russia and the Middle East for talks about sanctions on Syria and Iran, the U.S. government said Monday, days after Moscow vetoed U.N. action against Damascus.

The Treasury Department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing Daniel Glaser will visit Doha, Muscat and Moscow from February 6-10.

Residents of Homs on Monday described scenes of panic and carnage in the city of central Syria undergoing a fierce assault by government troops, urging outside powers to intervene to halt the bloodshed.

"What is happening is indescribable," said Wael, a resident reached by telephone. "Security forces have been relentlessly shelling the city since this morning.

The United States closed its embassy in Syria and pulled out all its staff on Monday amid growing security concerns as President Bashar al-Assad's government intensifies its bloody crackdown.

Britain also recalled its envoy, but U.S. President Barack Obama stressed the importance of diplomacy and said it was a very different situation from Libya, where Western military intervention helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday described the rare double veto used by Russia and China to block a resolution condemning Syria as a “slap in the face of the Syrian people,” urging the Lebanese state to “aid the Syrian refugees” instead of staging “airborne military parades in the northern border areas.”

In his weekly column in al-Anbaa newspaper, his party’s mouthpiece, Jumblat said the vetos “destroyed what’s left of the Arab League’s initiative which tried to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.”

The opposition Syrian National Council on Monday urged Syrians around the world to hold protests outside their embassies, accusing the regime of "genocide" in Homs.

"We call on everyone to surround Syrian embassies and stage sit-ins outside them," the SNC said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.

Saudi Arabia on Monday called for "critical measures" to be taken on Syria, warning of an impending "humanitarian disaster" after the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a resolution on the crisis there.

"The U.N. Security Council's failure to pass a resolution in support of the Arab Initiative must not prevent the taking of critical measures to protect innocent lives and stop the bloodshed and all acts of violence that threaten serious consequences for the Syrian people and regional stability," a cabinet statement said.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Monday expressed his country's disappointment over the veto by China and Russia of a U.N. resolution on the Syrian crisis, saying that the cold war era was over.

"I'd like to say that we are upset about the vote at the United Nations," Gul told a televised news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-Bak.

France and Germany will not accept the "blocking" of international action on Syria, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday, after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution on the crisis.

After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sarkozy also said he would call Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on behalf of France and Germany later Monday to discuss the international community's response to the crisis.