U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday singled out Syria's government for censure, telling it to halt its violent crackdown on the dissidents and rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime.

Turning to fears of a wider Middle East war, Ban said, "A sectarian civil war would also gravely imperil Syria's neighbors." They are Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan and Israel.

Ban noted that his peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, recently went to Syria and called on the government to end its use of heavy weapons and demonstrate the commitment to end the armed violence. "Government officials have repeatedly said they would honor these commitments," Ban said. "We are still waiting for them to act."

Ban also repeated his concerns about weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons. Syria recently acknowledged for the first time that it possesses chemical weapons but said it would only use them if the country came under foreign attack.