Assad vows to resist as blast hits border

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad has vowed not to bow to mounting pressure and "plots", almost two years into a deadly revolt in Syria, as at least 10 people died when a car exploded just inside the Turkish border.

On the war front, rebels seized control of Syria's largest dam, a monitoring group said.

"Syria will remain the beating heart of the Arab world and will not give up its principles despite the intensifying pressure and diversifying plots not only targeting Syria, but all Arabs," Assad said, quoted by state news agency SANA.

Opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, meanwhile, said he had received "no clear response" from Damascus over his offer of dialogue.

Khatib said in late January he was prepared to hold direct talks with regime representatives without "blood on their hands", on condition the talks focus on replacing Assad.

The Assad regime has said it was open to talks but without pre-conditions.

"The issue is now in the regime's camp. It has given no clear response yet that it accepts that (Assad) will leave. There has been no official contact until now," Khatib told reporters in Cairo.

Just across the border from northern Syria, at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded when a car exploded inside Turkey, Turkish officials said, although the cause was not immediately clear.

A Syrian-registered car was believed to have been at the centre of the blast on Turkish soil, local mayor Huseyin Sanverdi told Turkey's NTV news channel.

An official from the Turkish foreign ministry confirmed the deadly explosion, adding that the blast triggered a fire that damaged about 15 humanitarian aid vehicles.

The explosion struck barely 40 metres from the Cilvegozu crossing, NTV said, adding it might have been caused by a mortar bomb fired from the Syrian side.

But another foreign ministry official said a suicide bomber might have been involved in the blast that smashed apart the gates at the crossing, opposite Syria's Bab al-Hawa post.

Turkey, a one-time Syria ally which is now vehemently opposed to Assad's regime, has taken in almost 200,000 refugees from the conflict.

On the ground, rebels seized control of the largest dam in Syria, a vital barrier along the Euphrates River in the northern province of Raqa that generates 880 megawatts of power, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"This is the biggest economic loss for the regime since the start of the revolution," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP