Arab Gulf states and other countries pledged more than $1.5bn in urgent humanitarian aid to Syria on Wednesday as a key opposition leader made a surprise offer of holding direct talks with the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The funds were raised at a conference in Kuwait after Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, warned of a "catastrophic" situation.

Syrian Red Cross workers have evacuated 27 people from a neighbourhood in the besieged city of Homs that has endured weeks of shelling by government forces.

Turkish police have stopped an aid convoy of Syrian expatriates from crossing into Syria to deliver blankets, medicine and food to people affected by the government's crackdown on protests. The "Freedom Convoy to Syria", including activists from Europe, North America and the Arab world, was stopped outside the town of Kilis, about 15km from the Oncupinar border crossing. The provincial governor offered to take a small group of activists to the border to see if they could pass. Up to 150 activists, brought together by a campaign on the social networking website Facebook, had left the southeastern city of Gaziantep in buses and cars earlier on Thursday.