At the G20 summit in Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for Russia and China to stop "making the wrong choices".
She said the U.S. government will continue to press them to stop their support for the Assad regime.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, HILLARY CLINTON, SAYING:
"The Syrian regime is going to be under increasing pressure which will create perhaps more space for all of us to push hard on a transition, and we will intensify our diplomatic outreach to those countries that are still supporting the Assad regime. This is a challenging process but mostly for the people of Syria, who everyday are living with the results of this brutal crackdown they're suffering under. I don't want to get ahead of the meeting that will be a very large gathering that will demonstrate once again international unity in the face of the Assad regime. We'll send a clear message to Russia, China and others who are still unsure about how to handle the increasing violence but are up until now unfortunately making the wrong choices. And I think that we'll have more to say as we go through this week and after the meeting."
The German foreign minister also said more sanctions are needed against Syria.
(SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER, GUIDO WESTERWELLE, SAYING:
"I don't want to speculate about individual measures, but there's no question we need to increase the pressure on the Assad regime. We will adopt further sanctions in Europe, and not just in Europe."
Westerwelle declined to name specific sanctions under consideration.
But a G20 official at the meeting, said the EU was on course to agree to measures to curb the Syrian central bank's ability to operate.
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