The United States on Monday weighed possible further sanctions against Damascus as it hoped for "a strong and unified message" from the U.N. Security Council over the deadly crackdown in Syria.

"We've issued now several sets of sanctions against (President Bashar) Assad and his regime," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.

The Syrian army pressed on Monday with a deadly crackdown on anti-regime dissent, even as international condemnation swelled ahead of a U.N. meeting on the crisis.

The Local Coordination Committees reported Monday evening that the army was firing tank shells and machinegun rounds at several neighborhoods in the flashpoint protest city of Hama. One person was killed in the shelling, the committees said.

France on Monday said it had given Libyan rebels 259 million dollars (181 million euros) in frozen funds that used to belong to the regime of strongman leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"The NTC (National Transitional Council) will now be able to use these funds for purchases of a humanitarian nature," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

Egyptian armed forces and riot police moved into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday to disperse several dozen protesters who refused to leave the area after most groups had suspended a sit-in.

Military police shot into the air to disperse the protesters, and proceeded to beat them with batons when they refused to leave the square, a security official said.

Germany's opposition Green party is taking the government to court over a reported secret deal to sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia, a party spokeswoman said Monday.

"A suit brought by the members of parliament Christian Stroebele, Claudia Roth and Katja Keul was filed on Friday" with the Constitutional Court, the spokeswoman added.

Fierce fighting broke out Monday between Yemen's army and tribesmen who back anti-regime protesters in the strife-torn country's second city of Taez, witnesses said.

The battles began early in the morning and carried on intermittently during the day in a suburb north of Taez which links the city of four million residents to the tribal areas around it, said the witnesses.

Germany Monday condemned what it called a war by the Syrian government against its own people, after calling for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the latest deadly crackdown.

Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer renewed Berlin's call for a robust response from the council and new European Union sanctions against Damascus after activists said security forces killed nearly 140 people Sunday.

The European Union is to add five new names to a list of Syrian individuals and companies already targeted by a visa ban and assets freeze, EU diplomats said Monday.

"We will continue with our policy of sanctions,” said a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, confirming that a new round of measures against Syrians involved in the crackdown against protesters was "imminent.”

Russia urged Syria on Monday to immediately stop the use of force and repression against civilian protesters, in its strongest criticism yet of the government's crackdown on demonstrations.

The foreign ministry expressed "serious concern" after activists said Syrian security forces killed nearly 140 people Sunday in one of the deadliest days in more than four months of anti-regime protests.

Lack of a U.N. mandate and regional support means the conditions are not met for a Libya-style military operation in Syria, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen was quoted as saying on Monday.

"In Libya, we're carrying out an operation based on a clear U.N. mandate. We have the support of countries in the region. These two conditions are not met in Syria," Rasmussen told France's Midi Libre regional daily.