Juppe: Europe to Harden Syria Sanctions, Paris to Help Opposition to Organize

Europe will strengthen sanctions imposed on Damascus in a bid to boost pressure on the regime after China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution on the Syrian crisis, France said on Sunday.

"Europe will again harden sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime. We will try to increase this international pressure and there will come a time when the regime will have to realize that it is completely isolated and cannot continue," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on BFMTV television.

Juppe also said that France would "help the Syrian opposition to structure and organize itself" and would be working to create an international group on Syria.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed the creation of a "group of friends" of the Syrian people.

Juppe said Sarkozy "will take steps in the coming days to try to bring together all those who consider the current situation (in Syria) absolutely intolerable."

Juppe also described the veto by China and Russia as a "moral stain" on the United Nations and said France would consider a call by Tunisia for all countries to expel Syrian diplomatic envoys.

Russia and China on Saturday blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on protests, drawing condemnation from other global powers and the Syrian opposition.

The European Union has already agreed several rounds of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, with dozens of regime insiders and companies targeted so far by an assets freeze and travel ban.

The EU is also enforcing an arms embargo and a ban on imports of Syrian crude oil.

Sarkozy on Saturday condemned the veto, saying it encouraged the Syrian regime's crackdown.

"The Syrian tragedy must stop," said Sarkozy in a statement issued through his office.

Since March 2011, "the Damascus regime has only responded to the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy with fierce repression and endless promises," Sarkozy said.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet earlier Sunday slammed Russia for blocking the resolution on Syria and said Moscow cannot hold out "indefinitely" in the face of global opinion.

"Russia, for reasons that are almost shameful, is blocking everything," Longuet told RTL radio.

"We have a duty, we Europeans, to show that we will never accept this regime. Russia can hold out for 15 days, two months, but it cannot hold out indefinitely," he said.

The death toll in Syria rose to at least 88 people reported killed over the weekend -- one of the bloodiest since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted almost 11 months ago.

Opposition groups say at least 6,000 people have now been killed in Syria.