REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he reserved the right to resort to both diplomatic and military options to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but insisted that US action alone would not be enough to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Taking a cautious line at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Obama voiced hope that the United States and Russia would succeed in arranging an international peace conference on Syria, despite signs of growing obstacles. Erdogan had been expected to push Obama, at least in private, for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spillover of violence yet.

Obama - who has been reluctant to arm Syrian opposition group or become enmeshed militarily in the conflict - made no mention of deeper engagement in Syria during an appearance at the White House, where the leaders sought to project a united front.

"What we have to do is apply steady international pressure," Obama said.

Both leaders stressed the need to bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table after more than two years of fighting that has killed more than 80,000 people and risks destabilizing the volatile Middle East.

Turkey, a US NATO ally, has been one of Assad's fiercest critics, throwing its weight behind the uprising, allowing the opposition to organize on its soil and sheltering 400,000 refugees. Earlier on Thursday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul criticized the world's response on Syria as limited to "rhetoric," saying his country had received little help with the refugee influx. Gul's role is largely a ceremonial one.

Erdogan faces growing domestic concern about Turkey's role in Syria and its cost. He said Ankara would maintain its "open-door policy" toward Syrian refugees. He estimated that Ankara had already spent 1.5 billion USD on the problem.

Turkey has been among the strongest opponents of Assad but its enthusiasm for action against Syria has waned recently, partly in frustration at the fractured Syrian opposition and growing brutality.

Fighters of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria executed 11 men they accused of taking part in massacres by Assad's forces in a video published on Thursday. A man whose face was covered in a black balaclava shot each man in the back of the head as they kneeled, blindfolded and lined up in a row in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

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