BBC News with Jonathan Izard

The international envoy Kofi Annan has warned that the crisis in Syria could spiral out of control and called for substantial pressure on Damascus to end the violence. Mr Annan made his comments during a

closed-door

briefing to the United Nations Security Council. Reporting from the UN, Barbara Plett.

Kofi Annan acknowledged to UN member states that his peace plan for Syria isn't working. In a closed-door briefing to the Security Council, diplomats say he called for substantial pressure on Damascus to end the violence. Diplomats have said another idea is to create a contact group of world and regional powers to press for a political transition. To succeed, Mr Annan said, the international community must act as one and act now, but it's the council's divisions that have been on display. In a strongly worded statement, the United States called on all nations to abandon support for the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia and China repeated their opposition to any outside intervention or forced regime change.

Earlier, Mr Annan had expressed his horror on the latest reports of a massacre in the village of Qubair in Hama province. The Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja'afari also condemned the killings in Qubair, but he also have (has) this to say.

"But every time that there is a meeting at the Security Council, there is a spread of lies, and we see this scenario, we saw them for long. Mr president called this occurrence in certain parts of my country is truly an atrocious massacre. It is