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DAMASCUS: Syrian troops killed 28 civilians in the central city of Hama on Monday, monitors said, as UN military observers toured protest centres near the capital and both the European Union and the United States imposed new sanctions.

The persistent bloodshed 11 days into a promised ceasefire sparked growing criticism from opposition activists of the fledgling UN mission which still numbers just eight observers out of a planned initial deployment of 30.

Government troops strafed Hama's Arbaeen neighbourhood and its environs with light and heavy machineguns, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Video footage posted online by activists showed mortar rounds hitting the area with plumes of smoke rising skywards. The UN observers visited several rebel suburbs near the capital and were met by thousands of protesters demanding the collapse of the regime.

Amateur video posted by activists on YouTube showed four of the unarmed observers in blue helmets walking in Douma, a northern suburb of Damascus, surrounded by a huge crowd waving Syria independence flags.

“The people demand the fall of the regime,” some chanted while others called for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Monitors also visited the town of Zabadani, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the capital, where regime forces and rebel fighters have clashed repeatedly in past months. Fares Mohamed, an activist in Zabadani, said the observers' visit lasted barely a half hour.

“They refused to head to a location less than a kilometre (mile) from the town to see tanks hidden by the regime,” said Mohamed, who was reached via Skype.

Two members of the observer advance team on Sunday set up base in the central city of Homs, scene of some of the fiercest fighting between government troops and rebels since the outbreak of the 13-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The official state news agency SANA said the observers toured the battered city's Al-Waer neighbourhood on Monday.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon has decided that the deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors in Syria can start next week, a UN spokesman told AFP on Monday.

Following a UN Security Council resolution that allowed the mission, Ban was left to make an “assessment” as to whether it was safe for the monitors to go. “The decision has been taken” and the monitors should start arriving next week deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.

Activists have been sceptical of the UN mission, saying the regime was simply buying time and was not committed to the ceasefire plan.