End all violence

Protesters march through a street as they carry men (unseen) believed to be killed protesters in Homs, in this undated still image taken from amateur video made available on August 2, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Syria's neighbor Lebanon disassociated itself from the formal statement agreed by the other 14 members of the UN Security Council. A Lebanese envoy said the Western-drafted statement would not help the situation.

The council called for "an immediate end to all violence and urges all sides to act with utmost restraint, and to refrain from reprisals, including attacks against state institutions."

That phrase was a gesture to Russia and other countries that had called for a balanced statement that would apportion to both sides blame for the violence. Western nations say the two sides cannot be equated.

Washington says Assad has lost legitimacy and has imposed sanctions on the president and his top officials, but has stopped short of directly calling on him to leave office as it did to Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Western officials fear instability in Syria and the wider Middle East if protesters oust Assad, whose family has ruled for four decades and kept Syria's frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights quiet despite its anti-Israel alliance with Iran.

The White House slightly hardened its stance Wednesday, saying the United States viewed him as the cause of instability in the country.

"Syria would be a better place without President Assad," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a news conference.