“We had hoped we would not have to do it again, but today we are asking for $4.4 billion for the whole of 2013,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a joint press conference with other UN officials in Geneva.

“That’s more than half the combined total of all of our other appeals which cover 16 countries from Afghanistan through to Somalia,” she said.

The appeal, revised from $1.5 billion in January, covers relief activities for the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP) and the Regional Response Plan (RRP).

Of the $4.4 billion, $1.4 billion will go to SHARP, assisting Syrians inside Syria, and $3 billion to RRP, which provides life-saving aid and protection to refugees in the immediate surrounding region. So far, $1.2 billion have been received.

In addition to this, the Governments of Lebanon and Jordan are seeking $450 million and $380 million, respectively, to support the efforts to provide education, health and other services to the refugees who are now in their countries.

“We estimate that 6.8 million people now need urgent help. That is one in three Syrians in need of urgent humanitarian assistance,” Ms. Amos said, adding that between January and April, the number of people displaced in Syria more than doubled. “These are massive figures, but those figures mask a human tragedy.”

Since March 2011, fighting between the Syrian Government and opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad has killed more than 80,000 people. In addition, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that some 1.6 million Syrians have fled their country to escape conflict, but notes that this number quickly escalating.

“We expect that we might reach 3.5 million refugees by the end of the year,” High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres told reporters. “The funds we are appealing for are a matter of survival for suffering Syrians and they are existential for the neighbouring countries hosting refugees.”

Mr. Guterres underlined that more than half of the refugees fleeing Syria are children, and noted that many are starting to show signs of moderate to acute malnutrition.

The appeal includes $1 billion that would enable the World Food Programme (WFP) to scale up its distribution of food both inside and outside Syria. The agency currently distributes food to more than 800,000 people outside Syria and an additional 2.5 million inside the country. With additional resources, the agency said it hopes to reach a total of 7 million Syrians by late 2013.

Assad’s comments came in a pre-recorded interview with al Manar television, a Lebanese satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah.

Dozens of Hezbollah militants are said to be fighting alongside Syrian forces in Qusayr the since May 19, when government forces launched an offensive to recapture the strategic town near the Lebanese border. Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said thousands of Hezbollah fighters were contributing significantly to the conflict in Syria.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said earlier this week that Hezbollah would fight in Syria until Assad’s survival was assured.

Assad, however, downplayed Hezbollah’s presence in Syria in his interview, saying that the number of fighters the Lebanese group had sent to his country was a “drop in the ocean” compared with the “hundreds of thousands” of Syrian government troops fighting against rebels.

“Logically speaking, if Hezbollah or the resistance wanted to defend Syria by sending fighters, how many could they send – a few hundred, a thousand or two? We are talking about a battle in which hundreds of thousands of Syrian troops are involved against tens of thousands of terrorists.”

Reports have said up to 4,000 Hezbollah fighters have joined forces with the Syrian military, which has claimed to be winning the battle, Al Jazeera said.

He noted that the timing of the Qusayr battle is linked to the “Israeli escalation”.

President Bashar al-Assad also said Syria would be willing to attend peace talks with the opposition in principle with the condition that anything agreed upon would be subject to the approval of the Syrian people through a referendum.

“Simply put, our only condition is that anything agreed upon in any meeting inside or outside the country, including the conference, is subject to the approval of the Syrian people through a popular referendum. This is the only condition. Anything else doesn’t have any value. That is why we are comfortable with going to the conference. We have no complexes. Either side can propose anything, but nothing can be implemented without the approval of the Syrian people. And as long as we are the legitimate representatives of the people, we have nothing to fear.”

Assad was referring to talks, backed by Russia and the US  next month in Geneva. Peace talks aim at finding a political solution to the country’s civil war.

On the other hand, the National Coalition said it will not take part in would not participate in the Geneva talks until the international community intervened to end a siege in Qusayr, a town in Homs province near the Lebanese border.

State-run Syrian TV SANA reported that the voter turnout in the election was 51 per cent, however, only limited results have been diclosed.

Assad suggested in the interview that the West was behind an uprising against his rule and told Rusiian TV: “Whatever happens in the Middle East, the chaos that is now being created, the terrorism, will have a negative effect on Europe as well, because it is not far from our region.”

“For the leaders of these countries, it’s becoming clear that this is not ‘Spring’ but chaos, and as I have said, if you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself, and they understand this perfectly well,” Assad said.

Referring to the opposition Free Syrian Army fighting the regime he said, “It is not an army an it is not free,” accusing them of  geting money and weapons from abroad from various countries. “It is a group of criminals who have for years broken the law and received convictions. There are also religious extremists like from Al-Qaeda.”

Assad also noted that there were many foreign mercenaries fighting the with the opposition that have been captured and soon would be inofrmation about them would be released by the government to show to the world.

Meanwhile,  more than 200 U.N. observers have been deployed throughout Syria to monitor the cease-fire agreement, which has been repeatedly violated since it took effect on April 12.

Assad said that since the observers’ arrival, there had been a reduction in conflict between the two sides but an increase in “terrorist attacks”.

He blamed the West of ignoring opposition violence, he said: “The West only talks about violence, violence on the government side. There is not a word about the terrorists. We are still waiting.”

Assad’s remarks came as six UN monitors who were caught up in violence in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun. None of the observers were wounded, but they had to spend the night with rebels in the area which handed them back to their UN colleagues on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera.