Alarmed by a swelling number of refugees fleeing the year-long unrest in Syria, Turkey has warned of unspecified steps if Damascus fails to abide by an April 10 deadline to cease violence.

"We will patiently follow the process until April 10," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by daily Hurriyet on Sunday.

But "we will implement steps" if violence does not stop after that, he added.

The Turkish premier did not specify what measures his government would take, but several scenarios are being floated by the press, including the setting up of a buffer zone along the border to protect large numbers of refugees.

Escalating violence has triggered a sharp surge in the number of Syrian refugees crossing into Turkey.

A record number of around 4,000 Syrians have entered since last Thursday to escape a helicopter-backed assault by Syrian troops.

The latest arrivals pushed the number of refugees on Turkish soil to 24,564, according to official figures provided by the Ankara government.

Fighting in Syria has raged on despite Damascus accepting an April 10 deadline to withdraw forces from protest hubs as part of a ceasefire plan brokered by the UN and Arab League peace envoy, former UN chief Kofi Annan.

Nearly 130 people were reported killed across Syria on Saturday -- three days ahead of the deadline to cease fire and pull back.

On Saturday, Annan called Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to get an update about the situation on the border. Davutoglu told the envoy that he could visit whenever he wished "to see the situation of Syrian victims" fleeing the unrest.

Annan accepted the invitation in principle, a foreign ministry diplomat earlier told AFP.

Last month the envoy visited Turkey for meetings with Turkish officials as well as the Syrian opposition based in Turkey, but his tight schedule prevented him from seeing the refugee camps near the border.

Turkey fears refugee arrivals could soar in a scenario similar to that which brought half-million Iraqi Kurds escaping Saddam Hussein's repression during the 1991 Gulf War.

"The numbers are continuously increasing. We are taking measures, we have no thought of closing our doors," said Erdogan urging the United Nations particularly Annan to take a stronger stance.

Turkey maintains an open-door policy toward all Syrians escaping Assad's crackdown but refuses to call them refugees to emphasise the temporary nature of their asylum on its territory.

Fleeing Syrians are mainly housed in camps near the border, while authorities keep ready additional accommodation in Sanliurfa province, located about halfway along the 910 kilometre (560 mile) Turkish-Syrian border.

Ankara, a former ally to Damascus, cut off contact with Assad and voiced support for the Syrian opposition and rebels after its calls for an immediate halt to bloodshed went unheeded by the regime.

Source: AFP