Ban, who was in New Zealand attending a meeting of Pacific leaders, told reporters that the aspirations of the Syrian people should be heeded and respected.

He said Assad needs to take ‘immediate and bold and decisive measures before it's too late’. He later amended that to say "It's already too late, in fact. It's already too late. If it takes more and more days, then more people will be killed."

The UN puts the death toll in Syria at 2,200 since an uprising began there five months ago.

Ban has tried for months to resolve the situation using diplomatic means. A UN humanitarian assessment team visited Syria two weeks ago. Activists said that soon after the team left the city of Homs, Syrian security forces killed at least seven people there.

AP