UNITED NATIONS/ WASHINGTON/ AMMAN: Syrian President Bashar Assad admitted that “some mistakes” had been made by security forces, in a meeting Wednesday with a delegation from U.N. Security Council members Brazil, India and South Africa, the nations said, as the U.S. stopped short of calling for Assad to leave power.More deaths were reported as the talks went ahead.

Deputy foreign ministers from the three states met with Assad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus to call for an “immediate end to all violence” in Syria, said the statement.

Assad “acknowledged that some mistakes had been made by the security forces in the initial stages of the unrest and that efforts were under way to prevent their recurrence,” said the statement released by India’s U.N. mission.
Assad “reassured the delegation of his commitment to the reform process, aimed at ushering in multi-party democracy,” said the statement.

“He said that political reforms were being finalized in consultation with the people of Syria and the national dialogue would continue to give shape to the new laws and to arrive at a suitable model for the economy.”
Assad was quoted as saying that constitutional revisions would be completed by February-March 2012.
His statements followed reports that Syrian security forces shot dead at least 11 people in the protest hub of Homs Wednesday while withdrawing from the flashpoint city of Hama after a 10-day operation. Syrian tanks also swept into two towns near the Turkish border Wednesday.

In Washington the White House said President Barack Obama believes Syria would be better off without Assad and the U.S. plans to keep pressure on the Syrian government. “We are all watching with horror at what he is doing to his own people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The U.S. envoy to the U.N. said Wednesday that his country has evidence of “crimes” in Syria and is ready to use it to step up pressure on Assad.

“From the United States’ point of view we are going to continue and intensify our pressure both through our national actions, in additional sanctions, as well as coordinated efforts with other partners here in New York and around the world,” Rice told reporters.

“We have evidence of crimes, we would share that quite readily with any in a position to investigate,” she said.
Earlier the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions which it said were aimed at the financial infrastructure helping to hold up Assad’s government.

It said it was designating the Commercial Bank of Syria, a Syrian state-owned financial institution, and its Lebanon-based subsidiary, Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, under a presidential executive order that targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.

It also designated Syriatel, Syria's largest mobile-phone operator, under an executive order targeting Syrian officials and others responsible for human rights abuses in the country. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who sent his foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to Damascus Tuesday to urge an end to the bloodshed said Turkey had given a clear message to Syria in talks Tuesday to end the military repression of mass pro-democracy demonstrations.
“In Syria, the state is pointing guns at its own people,” Erdogan said. “Turkey’s message to Assad is very clear: stop all kinds of violence and bloodshed.”

Addressing a meeting of his ruling AK Party Wednesday, Erdogan urged Damascus to meet the democracy demands of the Syrian people. “We hope that all will be realized in 10-15 days, and steps taken toward the reform process in Syria.”

Erdogan and Davutoglu saw signs that Turkey’s message was getting through after their envoy to Syria visited Hama Wednesday and reported back that tanks had been withdrawn from the city. Hama was the scene of a military crackdown this month in which rights groups say up to 300 people have been killed.

The bloodshed triggered a deluge of international condemnation and prompted the U.N. Security Council, under pressure from European and U.S. leaders, to issue a statement demanding an end to the violence.

Brazil, India and South Africa had been among members of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council that had resisted efforts by European powers and the United States to agree a council condemnation of the violence.
Russia backed the statement after refusing along with China to endorse a tougher formal resolution, and has since urged Syria to comply and engage in reform.

Since then three Arab countries, including heavyweight Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have recalled their ambassadors to Damascus for consultations.
Attending a news conference with Davutoglu Wednesday, the visiting Egyptian foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, urged the Syrian government to establish dialogue with different sections of society.

“We called them to sit at a table for dialogue, and the bloodshed to be stopped right away. We are monitoring the developments closely, and our attitude will be based on future developments,” Amr replied when asked whether Egypt could withdraw its ambassador from Syria as other Gulf Arab countries had done.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian state news agency SANA quoted Assad – who has described the uprising as a foreign conspiracy to divide Syria – as having told Davutoglu there would be no let-up in military action while Syrian security was at stake. Syria “will not relent in pursuing the terrorist groups in order to protect the stability of the country and the security of the citizens,” SANA quoted him as saying.

Syrian tanks pressed ahead with a sweep into two towns near the Turkish border Wednesday, and an armored Syrian force killed at least 11 civilians in an assault on a main residential district in Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and added that at least one woman had been killed and 13 people wounded when 12 tanks and armored vehicles, along with 10 large buses full of troops, also entered the towns of Taftanaz and Sermin, around 30 kilometers from the border with Turkey.

In Deir al-Zour, witnesses said Wednesday tanks and armored vehicles had spread across the city, and that residents had reversed earlier pledges to resist any army assault by force. “The inhabitants of Deir al-Zour have taken a collective decision not to resist, so as not to give excuses to the authorities to spread their propaganda about terrorists and armed groups,” one resident said, adding that he saw troops spraying slogans on houses such as “Assad or no one,” and “The people want the army to come in.”
Authorities have denied that any Deir al-Zour assault took place. They say they have faced attacks since the protests erupted, blaming armed saboteurs for civilian deaths.