PRESS ASSOCIATION -- David Cameron has expressed his frustration at the lack of international action against Syria as he said the situation had "many similarities" to Libya.
The Prime Minister said he detected that members of the Arab League were beginning to take a harder stance against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
But he acknowledged there were "problems" in securing United Nations backing for adopting tougher sanctions against the Syrian state.
He told BBC Radio 4 that, like Libya, "you have got a dictator who is doing dreadful things to his people".
But he added: "The problem is there isn't the same backing in the Arab League, there isn't the same backing internationally.
"In fact we are having problems at the United Nations even getting a strong resolution that says tougher sanctions and travel bans and asset freezes, all the things that we in Europe are putting in place."
The European Union is poised to ban the importing of Syrian oil and Mr Cameron said the UK had been in the "vanguard of arguing for a tougher approach" and had called on President Assad to stand down.
At the Friends of Libya summit in Paris, Mr Cameron discussed the situation with leaders in the region.
He said: "I had good conversations with some members of the Arab League last night in Paris where I think they are toughening their stance because they realise that what he is doing is appalling.
"They realise that he had his chance to demonstrate he was in favour of reform and he has completely failed to do that."