Syria’s opposition warned President Bashar al-Assad yesterday he will be toppled unless he ushers in democratic changes, as his troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

And in a new blow to the regime, 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the restive city of Banias announced their resignation in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, in a statement received by AFP.

The warning came as world pressure mounted on Damascus, with the European Union mulling sanctions and the UN human rights body calling for a special session in the wake of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Five EU countries are also summoning Syria’s ambassadors over the violent crushing of dissent, France said, adding it was joined by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. According to human rights activists, the military assault on Daraa, 100 kilometres south of Damascus, has left more than 30 people dead since last Monday, with at least 453 civilians killed across Syria since protests first erupted in mid-March. As the assault on Daraa, an agricultural town near the Jordanian border, entered its third day, the newly formed National Initiative for Change (NIC) warned Assad to institute real democratic reforms or risk “violence, chaos and civil war”.

“Either the ruling regime leads itself in a peaceful transition towards democracy... or it will go through a process of popular protests that will evolve into a massive and grassroots revolution that will break down the regime and carry Syria through a period of transition after a wave of violence and instability,” an NIC statement said.