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The BBC's Jim Muir says almost no information is coming from Hama, as unverified footage claims to show tanks on the move in the city
Reports from Hama say an army assault on the city has left dozens of civilians dead.
France says it may seek further action from the UN Security Council if the killings continue.
Decree On Thursday, President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree authorising a multi-party system, Syria's state news agency Sana said.
Mr Assad's ruling Baath party has enjoyed a monopoly on power since 1963. Ending the system of one-party rule has been a key demand of pro-democracy protesters.
The government adopted a draft law to this effect on 24 July, but the new decree gives it immediate effect.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has dismissed the move, echoing criticism from Syrian activists "This is almost a provocation. What we want is an end to the violence against the civilian population which is only defending its rights."
Dozens of people are believed to have been killed in a five-day military assault on Hama, with residents saying on Thursday that tanks have shot their way into Assi (Orontes) Square, in the centre of the city of 800,000 people.
Human rights groups say at least 150 people have been killed in the Syrian unrest since Sunday, mainly in Hama, adding to a civilian death toll believed to be more than 1,600 since March.
Activists said at least another six people had been killed in Hama late on Wednesday after Ramadan prayers.
One resident who escaped the city on Wednesday told the BBC it looked "exactly like a battlefield... like a Gaza Strip kind of city. Like some villages in Iraq when the US army invaded it. That's how it looks like".
Another resident described what happened in Hama when the army attacked on Monday.
"Around noon prayer time, the army tanks, they started using their machine guns and they started shooting the mosques actually. And there's a mosque right across the street from my house," he told the BBC.
"They started to shoot at the tower of it, you know, that tower of the mosque. And they started to shoot at it and they destroyed a pretty good part of it."
Another said he believed a massacre was taking place. He said he had seen piles of bodies in different parts of the city.
There are reports that families trying to flee the city have been shot at to force them to turn back.
Some families who have managed to leave have described the situation as worse than the 1980s, when the late President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current leader, crushed an uprising, leaving at least 10,000 people dead and the old quarter flattened.
Communication with the city is all but completely cut off, as are water and electricity, correspondents say.
Military operations were also under way in the central city of Homs, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 27 people have been arrested in security raids, he said.
'Criminal gangs' Protesters have vowed to rally every evening during the holy month of Ramadan, after nightly prayers.
Late on Wednesday, there were reports of large demonstrations in several Syrian cities. Activists told AFP news agency that 50,000 people had demonstrated in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, 20,000 in Duma, north of Damascus, and 40,000 in Homs.
Anti-government protests began in March, inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and soon spread to many cities across the country.
Mr Assad blames the current violence on "armed criminal gangs" backed by unspecified foreign powers.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council issued a statement saying that it "condemns the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities".It also called for "an immediate end to all violence and urges all sides to act with utmost restraint, and to refrain from reprisals, including attacks against state institutions."
The BBC's correspondent at the UN in New York, Barbara Plett, says the statement is weaker than what the European states wanted, but stronger than what might have been expected, given the opposition from some members to saying anything on Syria.
The statement stressed that the only solution to the crisis was a Syrian-led political process, in effect ruling out outside intervention, says our UN correspondent.
"The world has watched the deteriorating situation in Syria with the most profound concern," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. "But the events of the past few days have been brutally shocking."
The BBC's Jim Muir, who is following Syrian events from neighbouring Lebanon, says there was no recognition or acknowledgement of the statement from state TV or the state news agency.
But the UN move will give heart to protesters, as would any gesture of solidarity or support, our correspondent says.
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