Western, Arab countries pledge more support to Syrian opposition

Rome: Western and Arab governments on Thursday pledged more political and material support for the civilian Syrian opposition and called for an immediate halt to arms supplies to the Assad government.

A final statement after a meeting of the "Friends of Syria" diplomatic group in Rome added: "The regime must immediately stop the indiscriminate bombardment against populated areas which are crimes against humanity and cannot remain unpunished".

It added: "The ministers pledged more political and material support to the (Syrian National) coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and to get more concrete assistance (into) Syria."

They gave no detail of what kind of support would be supplied.