UN humanitarian chief says Homs 'completely devastated'

UNITED NATIONS: UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said the Syrian protest city of Homs had been "completely devastated" and heard gunfire there during a visit on Wednesday, her spokeswoman told AFP.

Amos was stopped from going into areas still held by the opposition after Syria's foreign minister had told her she could go to any part of the country, UN humanitarian affairs spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said.

Amos and a Syrian Red Crescent team were allowed into Homs -- including the battered Baba Amr district -- on Wednesday following intense international pressure for a visit to assess the extent of the crisis in the city which has become a symbol of protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

The UN emergency coordinator spent just over an hour in the city, where Syrian security forces routed opposition fighters at the weekend.

"She says that the parts they saw were completely devastated," Pitt told AFP. "She said Homs feels like a city that has been completely closed down."

"There were very few people around. They did see a few people looking for their belongings, that kind of thing."

The group "tried to get into opposition areas, but they were not able to do so. Security was definitely an issue. They heard gunfire as well," Pitt said.

Before going to Homs, Amos held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus.

Before leaving on Friday, she was to hold more talks with Syrian ministers and other officials about establishing a humanitarian presence in the country, where the UN says more than 7,500 people have died in the past year of strife. (AFP)