Syria faces fresh sanctions move as more protests loom

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the world community to target Syrian oil and gas exports and again urged Assad to step aside.

EU ministers meet in Poland on Friday to discuss sweeping new sanctions.

In Syria, activists are preparing another day of protests, under the slogan "death rather than humiliation".

They said that on Thursday another seven people were killed by security forces.

The United Nations says more than 2,200 people have been killed in six months of protests.

In Paris on Thursday, Clinton condemned Assad's "brutality against unarmed citizens", adding: "The violence must stop and he needs to step aside."

She called for "strong new sanctions targeting Syria's energy sector to deny the regime the revenues that fund its campaign of violence".

European Union foreign ministers will discuss an embargo on oil imports at their meeting in Poland.

Existing contracts mean such an embargo could not begin until 15 November, diplomatic sources say, but the list of Syrian officials targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban will expand.

The US has already banned the import of Syrian oil.

Russia, which has a veto on the Security Council, refuses to back a resolution imposing an arms embargo or asset freeze.

A BBC correspondent, on the Lebanese-Syrian border, says activists do not think sanctions are making any real difference and that the fate of the uprising will be determined on the ground in Syria.

Anti-government protests are expected to take place in various towns and cities again after Friday prayers.

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed by security forces in the central region of Homs.

It said another person was shot dead by the army in the village of al-Rama, in north-western Idlib province, while a young man and a 10-year-old girl died in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.

Access to Syria has been severely restricted for international journalists and it is rarely possible to verify accounts by witnesses and activists.