Foreign Minister Walid Muallem did not specify what measures Damascus might take, but he went on to say that countries that do not protect Syrian missions could find their own embassies treated in the same way.

"We will take tough measures against any country that recognizes this illegitimate council," Muallem said without elaborating on what type of reaction it might bring.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), announced last week in Turkey, is a broad-based group which includes most major opposition factions. No country or international body has recognized it so far as a legal representative of the Syrian people.

Bourhan Ghalioun, the opposition council's most prominent official, said he expects the organization will be recognized "in the coming few weeks." Muallem's comments came as the council was scheduled to hold two meetings, one in Cairo and another in Stockholm.

Damascus appears concerned that if the Syrian National Council is recognized by the international community, it could play the same role as the National Transitional Council in Libya that ultimately overthrew longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Syria's top diplomat was speaking during a joint news conference with a delegation from the left-leaning ALBA bloc of mostly Latin American countries, which includes Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. The ALBA officials were visiting Damascus to express solidarity with Syria and met Sunday with President Bashar Assad.

Muallem criticized European countries where Syrian missions were stormed by protesters, implying that Damascus might allow foreign delegations to be attacked in turn. "If they don't provide security to our missions, we will treat them the same way," he said.

A group of protesters broke into the Syrian Embassy in Berlin and two other Syrian diplomatic missions in Germany and Switzerland late Saturday and early Sunday in what appeared to be protests against the killing of a Kurdish opposition leader.

He also criticized the US and the French ambassador to Syria, who have condemned the regime's crackdown and visited tense areas outside Damascus angering authorities.

"We don't interfere in their business the way some of them do in Damascus," he said.

Last month, US Ambassador Robert Ford and several colleagues from the embassy were pelted with tomatoes and eggs as they visited an opposition figure. US officials said the assault was part of a campaign to intimidate diplomats investigating Assad's repression of pro-reform demonstrators.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of Kurdish mourners gathered in a northeastern city for the funeral of five people killed by security forces, a rights activist in the area said.

Mustafa Osso added that more than a 100 security agents in uniform have deployed in the main square of Kamishli ahead of the funeral, as unrest builds in the majority-Kurdish region.

Amateur videos posted online by activists showed scores of people marching in streets said to be in Kamishli and chanting anti-Assad slogans.

The crowd carried a black banner and Kurdish white, green, red and yellow flags.

Sunday's procession came a day after more than 50,000 mourners marched through Kamishli to mourn prominent opposition figure Meshaal Tammo. Security forces fired into the crowds, killing five people.

Tammo was assassinated Friday.