WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said on Friday that he condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the use of force against demonstrators in Syria by the government.

"This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now," he said in a statement.

Obama said the Syrian government's moves to lift the decades- old emergency law and allow for peaceful demonstrations were "not serious" given the "continued violent repression against protesters."

He called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to "change course now, and heed the calls of his own people."