By ZEINA KARAM | AP, ARAB NEWS

BEIRUT: The Syrian military tightened its suffocating siege on the city of Hama on Saturday in its drive to crush the main center of the anti-regime uprising in the country, even as the foreign minister promised that free parliamentary elections would be held by the end of the year in a gesture of reform.

In this image from television on Aug. 4, 2011 and released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, empty streets with debris are shown of what SANA describes as the Syrian army restoring "security and stability" to the central city of Hama, Syria.(AP)

Like previous reform promises, the new announcement is unlikely to have much resonance with Syria’s opposition, which says it has lost all confidence in President Bashar Assad’s overtures.

The four-year term of the current parliament expired earlier this year and Assad is expected to set a date for new legislative elections before the end of 2011.

Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem pledged to press ahead with reforms and said the new parliament “will represent the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

“The ballot box will be the determining factor and it will be up to the elected parliament to review adopted draft bills to decide on them,” he said during a meeting he held with Arab and foreign ambassadors in Damascus.

But Syria was coming under increasing international criticism over the bloody siege of Hama, launched on Sunday after residents calling for Assad’s ouster took over the city of 800,000 and barricaded it against regime forces. Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities around the country on Friday, met by gunfire from Syrian troops. Activists said Saturday that 24 people were killed.