Australia has stepped up its efforts to pressure the Syrian government into initiating an end on the 15-month conflict that has been ravaging the Middle Eastern nation, which international observers said already killed thousands of innocent civilians.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Monday that Canberra will implement fresh restrictions on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, covering entities and personalities that are connected with Damascus.

In a statement, Senator Carr said that the Australian initiative will prohibit official exchanges in oil, petroleum, financial services, telecommunications and precious metals between the two nations.

The move, he added, will be on top of Australia's existing sanctions and arms embargo against Syria and will be rolled out barely a month when the Syrian Chargé d'affaires in the immediate aftermath of the wave of massacres in Homs, which killed scores of non-combatants that include women and children.

"These sanctions reflect Australia's condemnation of the Assad regime, and our continued efforts to help bring Syria to the negotiating table," Senator Carr said in a statement.

He pointed out that to date, "the Assad regime continues to show s shown its unwillingness to negotiate a ceasefire and bring an end to Syria's bloodshed."

The Foreign Minister also clarified that trade restrictions with Damascus has been set at moderate levels that would hopefully convince Syrian leaders that Australia, as part of the international calling on the end of hostilities in Syria, means business.

Senator Carr also assailed Mr al-Assad for his failure to push for the effective implementation of the Annan Peace Plan, which was proposed by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and urged on the warring parties to stop the more than a year of fighting and negotiate instead for a peaceful settlement.

But with what he called as the explicit refusal of Mr al-Assad to talk with Syrian opposition groups, "it leaves that part of the world concerned about the bloodshed in Syria no alternative but to apply sanctions."

Also in an article he wrote for The Australian, Senator Carr called on Russia, Damascus staunchest ally, to take the lead role in resolving the bloody conflict and exert more pressure on Syria to remove Mr al-Assad and "offer negotiation with regime opponents."

As one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Moscow, Senator Carr said, holds "the only immediate viable solution," to the Syrian conflict and has a moral obligation to exercise its leadership over the matter.

Sadly though, Russia has been refusing to use its clout over Damascus to end the carnage ravaging the country, the Foreign Minister added, which Agence France Presse (AFP) has so far resulted to more than 15,000 deaths, most of them civilians.

"Russian support would be indispensable to the departure of Mr al-Assad ... (and) if Russia reconsiders ... it will give itself a reputation for leadership beyond the promotion of Russian national interest," Senator Carr wrote in his opinion piece printed by the News Ltd publication.

The calls, however, by the international community for the removal of Mr al-Assad have been consistently rejected by Moscow, vowing too that any forcible attempts to depose the Syrian leader will be stringently opposed.

The Foreign Ministry revealed the imposition of the sanctions in the eve of another round of restrictions coming from the European Union, leaders of which are expected to meet today in Luxembourg.