Pope Benedict urged the world on Monday to end what he called the endless slaughter in Syria before the entire country becomes a "a field of ruins".

The 85-year-old leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics said there was no justification for "baneful religious fanaticism" that had turned places of worship into places of trepidation.

In his virtual tour of world hot spots, he reserved his toughest words for the civil war in Syria, where the United Nations estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in a 21-month-old conflict that shows no signs of a let-up.

Syria is bring "torn apart by endless slaughter and (is) the scene of dreadful suffering among its civilian population," he said. The pope called for an "end to a conflict which will know no victors but only vanquished if it continues, leaving behind it nothing but a field of ruins".

The pope delivered his French-language address a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected peace talks with his enemies in a defiant speech that his opponents described as a renewed declaration of war.

Reuters