Embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is to address the nation in a television interview, as his forces continued to kill anti-regime protesters Saturday despite demands from world powers for him to put an end to the repression.

Assad will give an interview on Syrian television on Sunday "about the situation in Syria, the continuing process of reforms, the repercussions of American and Western political and economic pressures and a vision of the future for Syria in the current regional and international context," state news agency SANA said.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to "immediately" intervene to stop Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The New York-based rights group wrote a letter to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu asking the 57-nation body to protest Syria's actions and send a delegation there to probe possible human rights violations.

Opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad were meeting Saturday in Istanbul to launch a "national council" to coordinate the fight against the Damascus regime, organizers said.

Participants in two days of meetings in an Istanbul hotel, from both inside and outside Syria, planned to set up working groups and draft measures aimed at ousting Assad, who was targeted by new international sanctions on Friday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized the March 8 forces on Saturday for discrediting the case against four Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder and hinted that the suspects had acted under orders from the party leadership.

The evidence provided by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon prosecutor in the indictment draws question marks on the role of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran in Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination, Geagea said at a press conference he held in Maarab.

Tanks rumbled into the central city of Homs at dawn Saturday, a day after security forces killed at least 33 anti-regime protesters across Syria, adding urgency to a U.N. mission expected this weekend.

"Several tanks took up positions at dawn in the district of Al-Khalidiyeh" in the central city of Homs, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

Syrian banking deposits are being withdrawn from the Arab country, with some of them being placed in Lebanese banks, reported Robert Fisk in The Independent on Friday.

He said: “The real fear for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not oil sanctions, but banks.”

The European Union is preparing sanctions against Syria's key oil sector, a European diplomatic source told Agence France Presse Friday.

"The EU is preparing sanctions against the petroleum sector and envisions eventually an embargo on all Syrian oil imports," the diplomat who requested anonymity said.

Syria's security forces killed at least 22 protesters as tens of thousands swarmed the streets after Friday prayers, activists said, piling pressure on President Bashar al-Assad after Western leaders demanded he step down.

Fifteen people, including two children, were killed in separate shootings on protesters in the southern province of Daraa, while three were killed in the central city of Homs and two in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Russia opposes Western calls for Syria's president to step down and will send a delegation to Syria to meet the opposing sides, the Interfax news agency said Friday citing a source and a lawmaker.

"We do not support such calls and believe it is now that President Bashar Assad's regime needs to be given time to implement all the reform processes that have been announced," Interfax quoted a ministry source as saying.

More than 40 Syrian "revolution blocs" have forged a coalition to unite their efforts against the regime of Bashar Assad, according to a statement received Friday by Agence France Presse.

The so-called Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) said the coalition was formed due to "the dire need to unite the field, media and political efforts" of the pro-democracy movement launched in mid-March.