Canada has condemned Syria for refusing to allow aid into Homs, the embattled city facing a humanitarian crisis after weeks of bombardment by security forces.
"Assad and his regime are blocking humanitarian aid from getting to the Syrians who need it most, while making life miserable for countless others," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement released late Saturday.
"Canada is considering new measures to make clear that Assad must go. Change will happen. Syrians will have their day - and Canada stands with them in their calls for a better brighter future," he said.
On Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross began handing out food and non-food items to people who have fled the city to outlying areas.
But volunteeers with the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been denied access to the bombed out Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr. The government has apparently told the organizations there are security issues like landmines and "booby traps."
"There are all kinds of reasons and excuses that I really don't want to go into," Red Cross spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel in a telephone interview from Damascus Sunday.
"But we have a green light from the authorities to get in ... we have not been able to do it," he said.
Government security forces seized Baba Amr from opposition fighters Thursday.
Debbakeh was evasive when pressed about why the organizations have been denied access to Baba Amr since rebels fled.
"We want to go in. We're trying to go in . . . we are negotiating as I talk to you to go in. It's been three days we haven't been able to for various reasons that seriously I don't want to go into," he said.
Debbakeh said he didn't have information on the condition of people trapped in the city of one million because cell phone service has been cut.
The regime's offensive against the rebels in the area began in February and has killed hundreds in a near-constant bombardment ever since.
Activists have said residents face a humanitarian catastrophe in Baba Amr and other parts of Homs, Syria's third-largest city.
Electricity, water and communications have been cut off in frigid temperatures, food was running low and many are too scared to venture out.
The government had said it would allow the Red Cross into Baba Amr on Friday, but then blocked access citing security concerns.
In the meantime, activists have accused Syrian forces of killing residents execution-style and burning homes in revenge attacks against those believed to be supporting the rebels.
As the brutal siege of Homs drags on, Western pressure on President Bashar Assad has intensified. The U.S. has called for Assad to step down and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said he could be considered a war criminal.
The European Union committed itself to document war crimes in Syria to set the stage for a "day of reckoning" for the country's leadership, in the way that former Yugoslav leaders were tried for war crimes in the 1990s by a special UN tribunal.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising.
With files from The Associated Press
