The conflict in Syria is worse than he thought, threatening the peace and security of the Middle East and the world, the UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Monday, DPA reported.
"The situation is extremely difficult and there is a stalemate", Brahimi said following a closed-door session with the UN Security Council in New York, while fighting in Syria killed at least 80 people.
He said the 15-nation council has begun discussing the way forward, but added: "I have no full plan for the moment, what I do have are new ideas."
"Reform (in Syria) is not enough, what is needed is change," said the envoy, a former Algerian foreign minister and a veteran UN troubleshooter. Brahimi became UN envoy for Syria on September 1, taking over from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
Brahimi met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition parties in Damascus last week.
The Syrian government meanwhile mounted airstrikes and shelled rebel-held areas on Monday, killing at least 80.
At least 13 died in the northern city of Aleppo, according to activists.
Footage posted online showed men trying to pull victims from under the rubble of two buildings destroyed in airstrikes on the central Maadi area in Syria's biggest city.
Three children from one family were among those killed in Maadi, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Government forces also shelled rebel holdouts in the central province of Homs, Idlib in the north, Daraa in the south and on the outskirts of Damascus.
Troops also fought rebels in the Kaboon neighbourhood in the capital.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in the uprising against al-Assad, which started in March 2011 with peaceful street protests and gradually became a civil war.
The Syria government has repeated its insistence in recent weeks that the rebels face imminent defeat.