Annan tells Syria of horror after massacre

DAMASCUS: UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan will seek to salvage his battered Syrian peace plan during "frank" talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, amid international horror at the Houla massacre of over 100 people.

As he began a visit to Syria on Monday Annan called the "tragic" massacre in the central town "an appalling moment with profound consequences."

The former UN chief said those responsible must be held to account, and urged "everyone with a gun" to abide by his six-point blueprint to help end 15 months of bloodshed.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem met Annan and the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood.

Muallem explained "the truth of what is happening in Syria and the attacks against law and order which are aimed at sowing chaos... (despite) the reforms that Syria has adopted in all areas," the official SANA news agency reported.

World leaders have voiced outrage over the deaths of at least 108 people in the central town of Houla on Friday and Saturday, among them 49 children and 34 women, many blown to bits or shot dead at point blank range.

French President Francois Hollande's office said Monday that Syria's leaders would have to answer for their "murderous folly."

Pope Benedict XVI was "pained" by the massacre and called on religious communities in Syria to cooperate to bring peace to the violence-wracked country.

Meanwhile Canada's foreign minister called on the UN Security Council to take "stronger diplomatic action," including economic sanctions against the regime over its "senseless slaughter of its own people."

The comments came after the UN Security Council -- where Syrian allies Russia and China wield veto powers -- on Sunday condemned the Damascus government's use of heavy artillery in the assault on Houla.

Annan told reporters in Damascus that he was "personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla," saying the Security Council was right to condemn it.

He urged Damascus to take "bold steps" to signal it is serious in its intention to resolve the crisis peacefully.

"And this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun.

"The six-point plan has to be implemented comprehensively. And this is not happening. I intend to have serious and frank discussions with President Bashar al-Assad," he said.

Those talks are scheduled for Tuesday, a Syrian official said on condition of anonymity.

Human Rights Watch demanded that Annan push Assad's government to allow the UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Syria to investigate the massacre.

Annan's peace plan was supposed to begin with a ceasefire from April 12, but this has been broken daily.

A Syria watchdog group said another 64 people were killed throughout the country on Monday, a day after 87 died despite the putative truce.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 34 of Sunday's dead were killed in random shelling of the central city of Hama by troops retaliating for losses.

The Observatory says more than 13,000 people have been killed in violence since. (AFP)