BEIRUT: Syria’s main opposition groups boycotted talks with the government Sunday and said they will not negotiate until President Bashar Assad stops the violent suppression of protests and frees thousands of political prisoners.Even many of the moderate intellectuals, independent parliamentarians and minor opposition figures who did attend the conference aimed at setting the framework for national dialogue were scathing in their criticism of the government crackdown.

Rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 12,000 people have been arrested since the start of demonstrations demanding more freedom began in March.

“How can I go to the conference when friends of mine are still in prison? People who should be with us in the conference are in prison,” said prominent opposition figure Fayez Sara.

“They did not prepare the background for dialogue. The killings, crackdown and arrests did not stop so why should we go?” asked Sara, who was arrested during the uprising.

Authorities say more than 500 soldiers and police have been killed in clashes which they say were provoked by Islamist militant groups.

Assad has responded to the protests with a mixture of force and promises of reforms. He has sent troops and tanks into cities and towns to crush protests, but has also taken steps toward reform, including granting citizenship to some ethnic Kurds, lifting a draconian state of emergency, freeing hundreds of prisoners and calling for a national dialogue.

“At this time there is no alternative to dialogue. [The alternative] is bloodshed, economic bleeding and self destruction,” Vice President Farouq al-Shara told more than 200 participants at the conference which was broadcast live on Syrian television.

“National dialogue should continue and on all levels … in order to turn the page on the past and open a new page in the history of Syria,” he said.

Some of those at the meeting called for an immediate abolition of Article Eight of the constitution which puts the Baath Party at the center of Syrian politics and society.

“The way out is by putting an end to the security state … and to work for a civil and democratic country where there is political pluralism and media freedom and to end the one-party rule,” Mohammad Habash, an independent member of parliament, told the meeting. “Confronting protests with bullets is not acceptable at all,” he said.

Syrian authorities question the motives of some of the opposition and believe they are seeking help from the West to topple Assad while most opposition groups question the seriousness of the authorities’ call for dialogue.

Western governments have condemned Assad’s violence against protesters, but their practical response has so far been limited to sanctions against top officials, far short of the military intervention against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

Syria summoned the ambassadors of the United States and France Sunday to object to their visit to the restive city of Hama without clearance from the authorities last week, the state news agency SANA said.

It quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the visit of U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and France’s Ambassador Eric Chevallier to Hama was “clear evidence of the American and French intervention in Syria’s internal affairs and confirms that there is external support for [protests].”

Ford’s trip to Hama coincided with a visit by the French ambassador but had not been coordinated, the department said Friday.

The U.S. State Department said Ford toured Hama to show solidarity with residents facing a security crackdown after weeks of escalating protests against Assad, but rejected Syria’s accusations that he sought to incite protests.

The United States has also accused Syria of having organized an angry 31-hour protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus over the weekend while the U.S. ambassador told the foreign minister that such anti-American “incitement” must stop.

The State Department said Damascus chose to protest Ford’s trip to Hama by organizing a protest outside the embassy that lasted 31 hours Friday and Saturday with protesters hurling tomatoes, eggs, glass and rocks.

Two embassy employees were struck by food, the department said in a written reply to queries.

The department said Ford registered U.S. displeasure with these events in an already-scheduled Sunday meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.It said the meeting had been requested by the U.S. Embassy and scheduled since Thursday.

“Ambassador Ford was not summoned by the Foreign Affairs Ministry,” the State Department said.

The French Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, summoned Syria’s ambassador to France Sunday to hear a “vigorous protest” over damage done to the French Embassy and a consulate in Syria.

Syrian demonstrators caused the damage Saturday after the French ambassador’s visit to Hama.

The demonstrators who gathered at the French Embassy in Damascus and the consulate in Aleppo burned French flags, threw projectiles into the compounds, destroyed vehicles and generally caused “considerable damage,” the ministry said.

SANA said Assad named Anas Naim Sunday as the new governor of Hama after firing Ahmad Khaled Abdel-Aziz on July 2, a day after huge anti-regime protests labelled the largest ever.

Hama has been the site of some of the biggest demonstrations seeking to oust Assad. The Syrian president sent security forces back into the city and ringed it with tanks this week.