“This time has passed now. Now it is time for change,” Mursi said , during his first presidential address to the league, on Wednesday in the capital Cairo.

”No time to be wasted talking about reform,” he added.

Mursi reiterated his call for Bashar al-Assad to step down warning him to take lessons from history in reference to Arab Spring uprsings that overthrew dictators of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

“I tell the Syrian regime ‘there is still a chance to end the bloodshed’,” Mursi told Arab foreign ministers. ”Don’t take the right step at the wrong time… because that would be the wrong step,” he added.

He also told the ministers a resolution of the crisis is the responsibility of Arabs.”The Syrian blood that is being shed day and night, we are responsible for this. We cannot sleep while Syrian blood is being shed.”

Mursi’s remarks follow his speech at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the capital of Iran, Tehran, where he called it an “ethical duty” to support the Syrian people against the “oppressive regime” in Damascus.

Mursi’s comments come as the Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group claims the conflict in Syria has left 26,000 people dead since it erupted more than 17 months ago.

Meanwhile, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi on Monday said the Egyptian leader was complicit in the armed conflict rocking his country. ”He is responsible for spilling Syrian blood, as are the Qataris, the Saudis and the Turks,” Zohbi said.

“It is regrettable that Iran has yet to reach agreement with the IAEA on a plan to resolve all outstanding issues,” the spokesperson told a news briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.

According to media reports, a leaked quarterly report from the IAEA notes that Iran has doubled the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges it has in an underground bunker.

Meanwhile, Iran has also yet to allow the IAEA to visit a military site at Parchin, where the agency suspects Iran carried out explosives testing that it is now working to cover up, which has “significantly hampered” the agency’s investigation efforts.

The Iranian nuclear issue was a topic of discussion in the UN chief’s various meetings in Tehran, where he attended the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The Summit, under the chairmanship of the Government of Iran, in the Iranian and drew representatives from its 120 members, as well as from various associated observer countries.

Iran’s nuclear activities have been of international concern since the discovery, in 2003, that Iran had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years, in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is for the peaceful purpose of providing energy.

In a statement in the Tehran summit Iran’s Supremem leader said: “I stress that the Islamic Republic has never been after nuclear weapons and that it will never give up the right of its people to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.” But Israel, the United States and their allies in Europe  believe Iran is developing atomic weapons.

In a meeting on Thursday, with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Aliakbar Salehi, Mr. Ban had shared his concern about Iran’s nuclear programme and underscored the importance of transparency in this matter, as well as the need for Iran to fully comply with the IAEA.

He added that he has condemned threats by any Member State to destroy or delegitimize another. “And I have reminded leaders here – and indeed throughout the region – to lower the volume and stop the provocation that can lead this area down a slippery slope of conflict. It is time for more reason and responsibility,” Mr. Ban said.

Ban’s remarks come after Iranian remarks earlier this month threatening Israel’s existence. Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a “cancerous tumour” with no place in a future Middle East, were “outrageous and hateful” while Iranian media had earlier reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said Israel would one day be returned to the Palestinian nation and would cease to exist.

The Iranian remarks come as a series of Israeli media suggest that Israel could attack Iranian nuclear facilities ahead of U.S. presidential elections in November.