President Barack Obama remains committed to diplomatic efforts to end the violence in Syria, the White House said yesterday.
The statement came after calls from a leading Republican senator for military action against the Government of President Bashar al Assad.
"The President has repeatedly called for an immediate halt to the violence in Syria. Currently the administration is focused on diplomatic and political approaches rather than a military intervention," said Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman.
On Monday, Senator John McCain, an influential Republican who lost to Mr Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said the US should lead an international effort to protect Syrian cities and towns through airstrikes on Syrian Government forces.
Mr McCain was an early advocate of the Nato no-fly zone that helped topple former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Almost a year after protests against the Assad family's four-decade rule erupted, the Syrian President faces growing Western anger for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of the city of Homs.
The United Nations said Syrian security forces have killed more than 7500 civilians during the revolt.
Mr Assad's Government portrays the uprising as a campaign by foreign-backed Islamist insurgents.
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