Syria on Monday warned Turkey against "inflaming" unrest in the country, where more than 3,000 people are estimated to have died in six months of protests against President Bashar Assad.

Buthaina Shaaban, media adviser to the Syrian president, who has repeatedly promised reforms, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that "armed gangs" were responsible for the violence.

A Syrian army defector has called for military aid to help his armed opposition group topple the Damascus regime, in an interview published in Turkey on Monday.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who defected in July, appealed for weapons for an armed opposition group he set up called the "Syrian Free Army".

At least 14 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed in clashes across Syria, with the flashpoint city of Homs turning into a battle zone, activists said on Monday.

Seven of 14 civilians killed on Sunday were gunned down by security forces in the city of central Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that seven others were killed in other towns.

The European Union is set to hail the formation of a Syrian opposition bloc as "a positive step forward", according to a draft EU foreign ministers' statement seen by Agence France Presse on Monday.

In the draft statement, the ministers, referring to the Syrian National Council (SNC), say the EU "welcomes the efforts of the population to establish a united platform" and "notes the creation of the SNC as a positive step forward".

General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim visited Syria on Sunday to offer condolences for the Syrian Mufti on his son's assassination last week.

The Mufti appreciated the condolences, and said that the Syrians are paying a high price on "our positions which support the resistance."

Syria threatened retaliation Sunday if other states recognize a newly formed opposition bloc as President Bashar al-Assad renewed a pledge of reforms and security forces shot dead at least 11 people.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is focused on "political reform" and on tackling "armed groups," the official SANA news agency reported on Sunday.

"Syria is taking steps focused on two main fronts -- political reform and the dismantling of armed groups," who seek to destabilize the country, Assad told the visiting foreign ministers of Cuba and Venezuela.

Syria will retaliate against any country that recognizes the opposition National Council, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday.

"We will take significant measures against any country that recognizes this illegitimate council," Muallem told a news conference, as the newly formed opposition group lobbied for support in Cairo.

Turkey has condemned the "loathsome assassination" of top Kurdish activist Meshaal Tamo as well as attacks against leading opposition figures in Syria, the foreign ministry said.

"We... strongly condemn the attempts aiming to suppress the Syrian opposition and the increase in attacks targeting main representatives of the opposition," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its web site late on Saturday.

A group of about 30 demonstrators stormed the Syrian embassy in Berlin overnight Sunday and confronted the ambassador to Germany, police said, following similar protests in other European capitals.

No one was injured, a police spokesman told Agence France Presse.