Amman/Paris: Syrians Monday began Ramadan in sombre mood after troops stormed Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre, in one of the bloodiest days of a five-month-old uprising against President Bashar Al Assad.

Scores of civilians were killed in Sunday's tank-backed assault on the central Syrian city where Al Assad's father crushed an armed Brotherhood revolt 29 years ago by razing neighbourhoods and killing thousands of people.

Tanks yesterday shelled a northeastern district of Hama, killing at least eight civilians, two residents said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined an international outcry over the violence.

"Chancellor Merkel condemns in the strongest of terms the Syrian government's action against its own civilian population," government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said.

"[She] explicitly urges President [Al] Assad to halt the violence against his own people immediately," he added.

Security forces, dominated by Al Assad's minority Alawite sect, had besieged the Sunni city of 700,000 for nearly a month before Sunday's crackdown on the eve of Ramadan.

Russia joins chorus

Meanwhile, Nato's chief Monday ruled out a Libya-style intervention to halt the bloodshed.

Russia, which has threatened to veto any UN Security Council resolution against Al Assad's government, a close ally, yesterday joined the long list of nations to condemn the Damascus regime's brutality.

Russia's foreign ministry in a statement called for an end to "repressions," adding the "use of force against both peaceful civilians and representatives of state structures is unacceptable and should be stopped immediately."

Leaders from across the world have fiercely attacked Al Assad's government after reports that his security forces killed nearly 140 people in an assault on pro-democracy protesters in Hama. But Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out Libya-style military support for the anti-Al Assad forces on the grounds that there is no international consensus in favour of intervention.

"In Libya, we're carrying out an operation based on a clear UN mandate. We have the support of countries in the region. These two conditions are not met in Syria," he told France's Midi Libre regional daily.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague agreed that there was no prospect of achieving a UN mandate for a military operation.

"It's not a remote possibility, even if we were in favour of that, which we're not," he told BBC radio.

"There is no prospect of a legal, morally sanctioned military intervention. And therefore we have to concentrate on other ways of influencing the [Al] Assad regime and of trying to help the situation in Syria," he said.

"It is a very frustrating situation. The levers that we have in this situation are relatively limited, but we should be frank in admitting that and working with the ones that we have."

While military strikes against regime targets in Syria remain off the table, Hague and other world leaders have vowed to intensify the diplomatic pressure on Damascus.

Totally unjustified

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton yesterday said a new round of sanctions against Syrians involved in the crackdown on protesters was "imminent".

A diplomat said the sanctions would come into force today when the names of the five are released in the EU's Official Journal.

Ashton previously described Sunday's violence as a "totally unjustified assault", insisting it "is even more unacceptable coming on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan".

US President Barack Obama in a statement on Sunday called the reports of the violence in Hama "horrifying" and said they "demonstrate the true character of the Syrian regime".

"In the days ahead, the United States will continue to increase our pressure on the Syrian regime, and work with others around the world to isolate the [Al] Assad government and stand with the Syrian people," he added.

Hague, who said he wants to see "stronger international pressure all round", lamented the obstacles blocking a formal UN Security Council resolution calling for the release of Syrian political prisoners and the opening of meaningful dialogue between the regime and protesters.

But he admitted that divisions in the council made this "quite difficult".

In a letter to the military, Al Assad reiterated that Syria was facing a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife designed to "tear Syria into small statelets that compete to satisfy those who worked to slice them up".

"All of Syria's honourable people are sure that we will emerge stronger from the crisis," Al Assad said.

"They wanted to wreak sectarian strife that destroys everything. We managed to prevent sectarian strife and examine ourselves to find out the errors and treat them."

The 1982 Hama massacre instilled such fear that few Syrians were ready to challenge Al Assad family rule openly until this year, when many were inspired by the largely peaceful popular uprisings that toppled Arab autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia.