Syria's government denied on Saturday that its army bombarded the central city of Homs, instead blaming the bloodshed on "armed gunmen," state media reported.

The government "denies shelling by the army in certain districts of Homs, as peddled by television stations that are inciting" violence," the official SANA news agency said, after rights groups reported that at least 260 civilians were killed in the assault on the protest hub.

Five men were arrested Saturday after gaining entry to the Syrian embassy in London, police said, as protesters demonstrated outside the building.

Around 150 protesters gathered outside the plush property in Belgrave Square, one of central London's finest squares, which houses a string of embassies.

Syria's army randomly bombarded the protest hub of Homs early on Saturday, killing at least 260 civilians in one of the "most horrific massacres" in the country's uprising, an opposition group said.

In a statement, the Syrian National Council also called on the world to act, and demanded that Russia change its position, condemn President Bashar Assad's regime and allow democracy.

The Syrian army is slowly disintegrating as troop morale plummets and more soldiers defect to join rebels fighting a regime crackdown against dissent, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army said Friday.

"The regular army is in a pitiful state and getting close to collapsing," said Major Maher Nuaimi, who is based with the FSA in Turkey, in a telephone interview with Agence France Presse.

Germany's foreign minister said Friday that U.N. wrangling over a resolution on Syria was harming the people, as he pushed for decisive action amid Russian hesitation and frantic diplomacy.

Speaking ahead of the opening of the Munich Security Conference, Guido Westerwelle called on his counterparts at the gathering to use the time to continue talks on finding language acceptable to all in a resolution.

Russia's deputy foreign minister said Friday that Moscow could not support the latest U.N. Security Council draft resolution on Syria in its current form, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Some of our concerns and the concerns of those who think the same as us have been taken into consideration but all the same this is not enough for us to be able to support it in this form," deputy minister Gennady Gatilov said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday held "constructive" talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown, officials said.

The pair agreed that diplomatic teams from both countries would "continue to consult" on the draft in New York, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner, amid a U.S. push for passage of the resolution.

Protesters flooded towns and cities across Syria defying a brutal government crackdown on Friday to commemorate the notorious 1982 massacre in the city of Hama that killed tens of thousands.

At least 36 people were reported killed on Friday, including 11 soldiers and three army deserters, activists and a rights group said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated that the March 14-led opposition is capable of toppling the government through popular protests.

He added however: “The current circumstances are not suitable for such an action.”

Iran banned its citizens on Friday from travelling to Syria by road following the abduction of nearly 30 Iranians in the escalating uprising in its key Middle East ally, state media reported.

"Due to the terrorist acts against Iranian pilgrims who are taking road trips to the holy sites in Syria, from Friday and until further notice road trips to this destination are forbidden," the head of Iran's passport and immigration police, Mahmoud Sadeqi, told the official IRNA news agency.