AMMAN/ BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar al- Assad offered on Wednesday to hold multi- party elections within four months, while his troops attacked city districts held by rebels trying to oust him.

Under world pressure to end a crackdown that has cost at least 6,000 lives, Assad promised a referendum in two weeks’ time on a new constitution leading to elections within 90 days.

Opposition figures spurned the offer and the United States called it “laughable.”

And Assad made clear he was still intent on crushing the uprising with tanks and troops.

The military unleashed a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad’s late father Hafez alAssad, firing at residential neighbourhoods with anti- aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles, opposition activists said.

Artillery also shelled parts of Homs for the 13th day in a row. In Damascus, troops backed by armour swept into the Barzeh district, searching houses and making arrests, witnesses said.

International efforts to halt the carnage have faltered.

France said it was negotiating a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria with Russia, Assad’s ally and main arms supplier, and also wanted to create humanitarian corridors to ease the plight of civilians caught up in the violence.

“The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed to allow NGOS to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres should be discussed at the Security Council,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on French radio.