DAMASCUS - President Bashar al-Assad's deputy said a clear winner is unlikely to emerge from Syria's 21-month war, in remarks published on Monday, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced alarm at escalating bloodshed.
Faruq al-Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim, also told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar he preferred a negotiated solution to the conflict, a position at odds with Assad, who is from the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam.
In the latest fighting, Assad's warplanes pounded eastern Damascus as residents fled renewed clashes at a Palestinian camp in the capital - bombed by regime aircraft for the first time at the weekend.
"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Vice President Sharaa told Al-Akhbar newspaper.
"Every day that passes, we are moving further away from a military or political solution. (Assad) does not hide his desire to press on militarily until the final victory (and he believes that) after this, political dialogue will actually still be possible."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cancelled a planned Monday visit to Turkey, his office said a day after his foreign minister warned Ankara over hosting Patriot missiles on its border with Syria.
In Washington, the US Treasury said it had designated former Lebanese minister Michel Samaha a "specially designated global terrorist" for aiding the Assad regime to carry out attacks in his country.
"The United States will continue to expose any attempts by the Assad regime to meddle in the affairs of its neighbours and further destabilise the region," said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.
Meanwhile, Syria on Monday hit back at the United Nations over the fate of Palestinian refugees.
 "The UN and international community are responsible for the frustrations of the Palestinians because they have not implemented UN resolutions related to their legitimate rights," Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said. "Syria offered something to our Palestinian brothers decades ago that no other Arab host country has offered," he told Ban in a telephone call, quoted by state news agency SANA.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is sending chemical weapons kits to UN troops in the Golan Heights because of growing fears over Syria's chemical arsenal, officials said Monday.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous briefed the UN Security Council on Monday on efforts to bolster safety for the UN force, which monitors a ceasefire zone between Syria and Israel, after five troops were injured in attacks.
In the meantime, rebel fighters on Monday launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama in some of the worst violence in the central province for months, a watchdog reported.
"Several rebel units began an all-out offensive against positions of the regular army in Hama province," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
"The clashes are the most violent in this province for months," he added.
Abdel Rahman said rebels were laying siege to army positions along an axis stretching from Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib further north to Mharde, in the western district of Hama province.
Syrian troops withdrew from several positions, including Sheikh Hadid, which rebels pounded with mortars and anti-tank rockets, he added.