Tunisia will expel the Syrian ambassador and stop recognising the Damascus regime after violent repression that killed over 200 people in the central city of Homs, the president's office said.

"Tunisia has begun formal procedures to expel the Syrian ambassador and to end all recognition of the regime in power in Syria," the presidency said in a statement.

The move came "following the bombardment that made more then 200 people martyrs" and left hundreds wounded in Syria's protest hub of Homs.

The Tunisian presidency expressed its "deep concerns about the massacres perpetrated over more than nine months by the regime against its people."

"There is no solution for this tragedy other than the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the opening of a road towards a democratic transition in Syria," the statement added.

An uprising in Tunisia in 2010 was the trigger for revolts across a quarter of the Arab world known as the Arab Spring, ousting the authoritarian presidents of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and putting pressure on other rulers.

Tunis hosted in December the first meeting of the umbrella opposition Syrian National Council (SNC).

Some 50 people gathered later Saturday outside the Syrian embassy in the Tunis suburbs, shouting slogans against Assad's regime, as a local official of the SNC called for a demonstration in the centre of the capital.

Demonstrators chanted slogans including, "Bashar step down," and "Leave, killer".

Protesters stripped the embassy of one of its Syrian flags as people chanted "God is great", before police began dispersing the crowd.

Opposition groups Saturday put the death toll from a bombardment of Homs at between 217 and 260 dead.