GENEVA: British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Saturday for the United Nations Security Council to start drafting a resolution next week setting out sanctions against Syria.

Hague, in a speech to a ministerial meeting in Geneva, obtained by Reuters, also said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his close associates could not lead a transition.

Accountability for crimes must be part of such a process, he said.

"The steps that we agree today and here I disagree with my (Russian) colleague Sergei Lavrov, will require swift endorsement from the U.N. Security Council in the form of a Chapter VII Resolution. Without that and the prospect of penalties for non-compliance, there can be little credible pressure on the Syrian regime and other parties to change course," Hague said. AGENCIES