Arab League monitors have claimed Syria is defying a plan to end its crackdown on peaceful protests, Al Jazeera reported, as Arab foreign ministers prepared to discuss the findings of the mission.
An initial report from the monitors will say violence by Syrian security forces against anti-government protesters continues and the military has failed to withdraw from cities.
The Syrian government has only partially complied with its pledge to release political prisoners, with citizens complaining that some are still being detained in unknown locations, the pan-Arab satellite news channel said, citing leaked sections of the report.
The Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo were to discuss whether to ask the United Nations to help their mission, which has failed to end a 10-month crackdown on unrest in which thousands of people have died, according to U.N. figures.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said on Friday there had been no end to the killing and the monitors could not stay in the country to "waste time".
The ministers will examine what monitors have found since starting work on Dec. 26th and will discuss ways for them to work more independently of Syrian authorities, a League source said.
League sources said they were likely to reaffirm support for the operation, resisting calls to end what Syrian pro-democracy campaigners say is a toothless mission that buys more time for President Bashar al-Assad to suppress opponents.
Eleven Syrian soldiers were killed and 20 wounded in clashes with army defectors today in the village of Basr al-Harir in the southern province of Deraa, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It did not report any casualties among the army defectors.
Qatar, which chairs the Arab League committee on Syria, has proposed inviting UN technicians and human rights experts to bolster the monitoring effort, League sources said. One said it might ask that UN staff helping the mission be Arabs.
Syria says it is providing the monitors with all they need and has urged them to show "objectivity and professionalism".