EUROPEAN Union governments have rejected efforts by Britain and France to lift an arms embargo on weapon supplies to Syrian rebels.

Opponents of the move said letting weapons be sent to the rebels could spark an arms race and worsen regional instability.

France and Britain found little support for their plan at a summit in Brussels yesterday, diplomats said, but EU foreign ministers will consider the issue again next week.

French President Francois Hollande, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, pressed for the ban to be lifted, saying Europe could not let Syrians be massacred.

According to the UN, 70,000 Syrians have been killed during the two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a leading backer of the arms embargo, said there was a danger Mr Assad's allies, Russia and Iran, could step up arms supplies to him if the EU lifted its restrictions.

Britain and France wanting to drop the ban didn't mean the rest of the EU's 27 states must follow suit, she said. She added: "One must also be aware of the fragile situation in Lebanon and what that means for the arming of Hezbollah."

German officials cite events in North Africa, where guns smuggled out of Libya have helped arm Islamists in Mali.

European Council President Herman van Rompuy said leaders had asked foreign ministers to look at the embargo "as a matter of priority" at a meeting in Dublin on March 22. Mr Hollande said he had guarantees from the Syrian opposition that any arms delivered to them would end up in the right hands.

"I will do everything so that at the end of May at the very latest ... a common solution is adopted by the Union," he said.

One of the concerns over lifting the embargo is that some of the rebel units are hardline Islamists.