Syrian government forces launched another attack on the defiant city of Hama on Monday, as the UN Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting on the situation.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces shelled the city for a second day, but anti-government activists said they would continue to resist.
Barriers have been set up in the city's streets and there are thousands of men "who are ready to defend the city with stones," Hama-based activist Omar Hamawi said by phone on Monday.
The city is home to about 800,000 people and has a history of defying the Assad regime.
"People will not surrender this time. We will not allow a repetition of what happened in 1982," Hamawi said, referring to an infamous massacre orchestrated by Assad's father.
Communities surrounding Hama have blocked roads leading to the city, Hamawi told The Associated Press. They have also blocked a highway linking Damascus to Syria's largest city, Aleppo, he said.
Monday's violence claimed the lives of four people in Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city. Two others were killed in the city of Bou Kamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The attacks came on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and followed the deadliest day in Syria since the uprising against the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March.
Seventy-four people died in Sunday's clashes, according to six Syrian human rights groups. Fifty-five of the victims were killed in Hama or in villages near that city.
Sunday's violence prompted international condemnation, including from the United States, the European Union and Canada.
The European Union also stepped up its sanctions against Syria on Monday, by imposing asset freezes and travel bans on another five officials in the Syrian government and military. The EU sanctions now extend to 35 Syrian officials and four government bodies.
The UN Security Council was due to hold closed-door consultations on Syria late Monday, an official who asked not to be identified told The Associated Press.
Germany requested the meeting after Sunday's crackdown by Syrian troops. France is also calling on the Security Council to condemn the violence, French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said Monday.
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have been trying since April to have the Security Council condemn Syria's violent crackdown on unarmed civilians.
But Russia, China, South Africa, Brazil and India oppose the move partly because they fear it could pave the way for a military intervention in Syria, as happened in Libya.
It appeared that government forces were intensifying their crackdown in the hopes of preventing anti-government protests from swelling during Ramadan, when worshippers typically gather on masse for nighttime prayers after breaking their daily fast.
The protesters have said they intend to start holding nightly rather than weekly demonstrations during Ramadan, according to Phyllis Bennis, with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
"In response to that, the regime has shut down a number of key mosques and particularly is looking at the possibility of the protests spreading on a wide level to the capital," she told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel Monday afternoon.
"So far it's been in areas surrounding Damascus, some of the suburbs. But it has not yet hit in large scale the centre of Damascus itself."
Life in Hama has proceeded largely outside of government control since June, when residents there rose up against Assad's regime and began blockading streets.
In remarks published Monday in a military magazine, Assad said he remains confident his government will stop the uprising.
He characterized the goal of the mass protests as "fragmenting the country as a prelude for fragmenting the entire region."
With files from The Associated Press
