French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Friday that the "time has come to increase sanctions" against the Syrian regime.

"The situation is no longer sustainable," and "the ongoing repression is unacceptable," Juppe told reporters during a visit to Ankara.

Syrian security forces on Friday shot dead 20 civilians, including four children, in the regions of Hama, Daraa, Homs and Reef Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees said, on the eve of an Arab League deadline for Syria to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters and as Turkey warned of the risk of civil war.

The latest bloodletting came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of massive security deployments to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, activists said.

Turkey and members of the Arab League called Wednesday for "urgent measures" to protect Syrian civilians from violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a statement issued after a Turkish-Arab cooperation forum in the Moroccan capital Rabat, they also declared they were "against all foreign intervention in Syria."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime will be isolated by the Arab world if it does not halt the deadly crackdown on its own people, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday.

"The cost for the Syrian administration of not fulfilling the promises it made to the Arab League is its isolation in the Arab world as well," Davutoglu said at a meeting with Arab League foreign ministers.

Turkey has abandoned hope that Syria will respond to international demands to halt violence and initiate democratic reforms, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

"We no longer expect the Assad government to show honest, persuasive, brave and determined leadership," Erdogan told his party's lawmakers. "No one expects him to respond to the demands of the international community anymore."

Turkey's foreign minister warned embattled leaders in Syria and other Middle East countries on Monday that those who cannot meet their people's demands "will go".

Ahmet Davutoglu spoke a day after Ankara expressed outrage after attacks on its diplomatic missions in Syria by pro-regime protesters and summoned the country's envoy.

Syria's opposition has asked Turkey for permission to open a representative office in the country, a Turkish diplomat said Monday.

The Syrian National Council, the country's largest and most representative opposition grouping, put the request to Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during talks on Sunday, the diplomat said.

Turkey on Sunday summoned the Syrian charge d'affaires to the foreign ministry in Ankara over attacks on its diplomatic missions and called on the international community for a united response to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

"Turkey summoned the Syrian charge d'affaires to the ministry ... and submitted a (diplomatic) note," the ministry said in a written statement.

Turkey is against any military strike on Iran, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday, warning that speculation risked destabilizing the region.

"We do not think it is right even to talk of possible military intervention in the region.... We are against such intervention and believe it would create more instability," Anatolia news agency quoted Davutoglu as saying in Ankara.

The death toll from a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Turkey rose to 37 on Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"Unfortunately the latest toll is 37", Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying in the eastern town of Ercis.