The European Union is committing 400 million euros more in aid to deal with the humanitarian crisis in and around Syria.
Thursday's announcement came on the eve of a humanitarian conference in Geneva and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that "it is vital that donors step up to the plate."
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the more than 2-year-old Syrian conflict that has created a refugee flow of some 1.6 million people. The EU had already committed 840 million euros ($1.1 billion) in humanitarian aid.
EU nations have imposed a slew of punitive measures on the regime of President Bashar Assad and have opened the way to start sending arms to the moderate opposition forces.
