AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad prepared to welcome a senior Chinese official to Damascus on Friday, a show of support from one of the few foreign friends he still has after the U.N. General Assembly voted for an Arab League plan telling him to step down.

Assad showed no sign of heeding calls to halt the repression of the 11-month uprising against his rule. His forces on Friday resumed pummeling opposition strongholds in the city of Homs, which has now been under fire for two weeks.

At the U.N. assembly in New York, 137 states voted in favor, 12 voted against and 17 abstained on Thursday on a resolution endorsing the Arab League plan. Russia and China voted against, after vetoing a similar text in the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 4.

The assembly vote, unlike Council resolutions, has no legal force but it increased Assad's isolation and reflected global revulsion at the ferocity of the crackdown in which government security forces have killed several thousand civilians.

"Today the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria - the world is with you," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said in a statement.

Beirut-based political commentator Rami Khouri told Reuters that the vote was important even though it was symbolic.

"There's overwhelming global support for the opposition. It keeps the pressure on and the opposition can say they have global legitimacy. I think his days are numbered. But we still don't know how long he can hold on," Khouri said.

Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez in 2000 after he had ruled for 30 years, still has crucial support on the international stage from Russia and China.

Both countries say they oppose the idea of foreign intervention in sovereign states and Russia has long-standing strategic interests in Syria, including a naval base.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, before leaving for his visit to Damascus, said: "China does not approve of the use of force to interfere in Syria or the forceful pushing of a so-called regime change."

China also believed the threat of sanctions would not help resolve the issue, he said.

British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the Russians should do more to stop the killing and worry less about a change in government.

"The question of which government Syria has is a matter for the Syrian people and not the Russian foreign minister. Our position is clear: The killing has to end. The regime has lost all its legitimacy," Burt told the Austrian paper Die Presse.

The uprising started out as peaceful civilian protests across the country last March but now includes a parallel armed struggle spearheaded by the Free Syria Army.

The rebel fighters have yet to do much more than stage hit-and-run attacks and small skirmishes. But Western and Arab powers fear the crisis is sliding into a civil war which could inflame the region's patchwork of religious, ethnic and political rivalries.

Assad portrays the opposition as foreign-backed terrorists and has promised reforms, while rejecting the idea of surrendering power.

On Wednesday, he announced a referendum on a draft constitution on Feb. 26 that would formally end his Baath Party's monopoly on power, followed by a multi-party parliamentary election.

Syria's opposition and Western powers dismissed the plan.

Analyst Khouri said, however, that it was "intriguing".

"It is not fully convincing but it challenges the opposition thinking about at what point they might go along with a reform process. But it probably won't happen," he said.

Speaking in Vienna, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said crimes against humanity had almost definitely been committed in Syria.

"We see neighborhoods shelled indiscriminately, hospitals used as torture centers, children as young as 10 years old jailed and abused. We see almost certain crimes against humanity," he said.

Ban later had talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe during which the U.N. leader said the priorities were to stop the violence and establish humanitarian access. U.N. agencies were coordinating efforts to provide relief to the Syrian people, he said.

Juppe said agreement at the Security Council was possible with Russia to halt the bloodshed.

"We can possibly reach a compromise on a short-term objective which is to end the massacres," he said. "We must do everything so that the violence ends and that a lot of humanitarian aid is given to the Syrian people."

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was non-committal after meeting Juppe in Vienna. "I cannot express my opinion on the French proposal because I received none," he said.

After bombarding Homs for nearly two weeks, the Syrian military has opened a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's late father. Activists said at least 14 people were killed in a bombardment of the nearby town of Kfar Nubouzeh on Thursday.

The state news agency said security forces "chased and fought an armed terrorist group in the Hamidiya neighborhood of Hama that has been terrifying citizens" and arrested some of its members, who had assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Syrian forces arrested human rights activist Mazen Darwich and several other activists on Thursday after breaking into his office in central Damascus, another opposition figure said.

In Deraa, a city on the Jordanian border where the revolt erupted nearly a year ago, the sound of explosions and machine gun fire echoed through districts under attack by government troops, residents said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one person was shot dead at a checkpoint on Friday in an area of Deir al-Zor, in the northeast, where clashes between the rebels and state forces have been going on since Thursday night.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, who tightly restrict media access to the country.