More time needed to win Syria battle: Assad

DAMASCUS: President Bashar al-Assad said his forces need more time to win the battle in Syria and scoffed at the idea of creating buffer zones for displaced people, as fighting raged nationwide.

Assad's statements, in an interview with pro-regime Addounia channel, came after a car bomb rocked a funeral in a Damascus suburb on Tuesday, killing 27 people.

"I can summarise in one phrase: we are progressing, the situation on the ground is better but we have not yet won -- this will take more time," Assad said in the interview with the private channel.

He also rejected an idea being championed by Turkey of creating buffer zones within Syria to receive those displaced by the conflict so they do not flood across the borders into neighbouring countries.

"Talk of buffer zones firstly is not on the table and secondly it is an unrealistic idea by hostile countries and the enemies of Syria," he said.

Assad also accused "the Turkish state of bearing a direct responsibility for the spilling of blood inside Syria."

French President Francois Hollande said on Monday France was working with its partners on the possible establishment of such buffer zones.

But his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, admitted on Wednesday implementing these would be "very complicated" and require the imposition of partial no-fly zones.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey is in talks with the United Nations on ways to shelter thousands of refugees on Syrian soil.

"We expect the United Nations to step in for the protection of refugees inside Syria and if possible housing them in camps there," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by Turkey's Anatolia news agency.

He was speaking before leaving for New York to attend a UN Security Council meeting on refugees on Thursday.

Human Rights Watch urged Syria's neighbours to keep their borders open to refugees, but Jordan said it would send home Syrians who attacked and injured more than 20 police in clashes at the Zaatari refugee camp near the border on Tuesday.

Assad on Wednesday also mocked regime defectors, saying their departure amounted to a "self-cleansing of the government firstly and the country generally."

Syria's government has been rattled by several high-profile defections as the conflict has escalated, including former premier Riad Hijab and prominent General Manaf Tlass, a childhood friend of Assad.

"Despite several mistakes, there is a strong bond" between the regime and the Syrian people, Assad insisted, boasting the support of the majority of the population.

"What is happening is neither a revolution nor a Spring, it is about terrorist acts in every sense of the term," he said.