International peace envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said on Sunday he has a proposal to end the deadly 21-month conflict there "that could be adopted by the international community."

"I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria... I think this proposal could be adopted by the international community," the U.N. and Arab League envoy said in Egypt after meeting League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

Regime forces Sunday pressed a fierce offensive in Homs after overrunning a key neighborhood of the central city, according to a watchdog, which also listed 23 children killed in violence across Syria.

The latest bloodletting comes after international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned in Moscow that Syria was facing a choice between "hell or the political process" after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Rebels pushed to consolidate gains in northwestern Syria on Saturday, storming a key army post and fighting for control of an airbase, a watchdog said.

President Bashar Assad's forces meanwhile recaptured a neighborhood of the central city of Homs that had been held by rebels for most of the year after a fierce assault that sparked a humanitarian crisis.

Lama al-Khadra summed up her work for Radio Damascus with a grim phrase: "Our mission was to kill with words."

Along with two other journalists for the state-run radio station, Khadra met with journalists in Paris on Friday after the three fled to France to join with opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime.

Russia acknowledged on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar Assad will not be persuaded to quit but insisted there is still a chance of finding a political solution to the 21-month conflict.

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned Syria was facing a choice between "hell or the political process" after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on his end-of-year bid to accelerate moves to halt a conflict that monitors say has now killed more than 45,000 people.

U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi stressed on Saturday that Lebanon can no longer support the large influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the crisis in neighboring Syria.

“The problem can no longer be ignored,” Brahimi said during a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov in Moscow.

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Assad on Saturday seized a district of the central city of Homs after a fierce assault that sparked a humanitarian crisis, a watchdog said.

"The army launched an offensive several days ago on the neighborhood of Deir Baalbeh with heavy bombing, and the fighting and attacks continued until the rebels withdrew," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will chair an international conference on January 30 to raise money for Syrian civilians caught up in the country's bloody civil war, the United Nations said Friday.

"The international community must do more to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in Syria and the neighboring countries," Ban said, according to a statement from his spokesman, Martin Nesirky.

The head of Syria's mainstream opposition National Coalition on Friday rejected an invitation by Moscow for talks to find a solution to the 21-month-old conflict, accusing Russia of interference.

"We have said frankly that we will not go to Moscow," Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib told al-Jazeera television.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has reached 170,637, among them 126,724 registered refugees and 43,913 scheduled to be registered, according to the weekly report The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The report said more than 24,000 refugees were registered in December at the registration offices in Tripoli, Beirut, the Bekaa and South Lebanon.