Syrian troops killed 31 people today as they pursued a fierce assault on president Bashar al-Assad's opponents instead of silencing their big guns and leaving towns as promised under a fraying international peace plan.
The worst bloodshed was in the city of Homs, where shelling of opposition districts killed at least 26, activists said. Opposition groups said there was no sign of a military pullout, with tanks still in cities such as Homs and Hama.
Citing satellite images, a French foreign ministry spokesman endorsed that view and denounced a Syrian assurance that troops were, in fact, withdrawing as a "blatant lie".
Nor did rebels immediately stop shooting. The anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said insurgents killed six soldiers in attacks on checkpoints on an eastern desert road.
As the end-of-day deadline loomed for Damascus to implement the ceasefire plan, Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualem demanded guarantees from its author, UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, that armed insurgents would also honour any truce.
"We will not ask the terrorist groups, which are killing, kidnapping and destroying infrastructure, for guarantees. We want Annan to give us these guarantees," Mr Moualem said in Moscow.
The last-minute demand, a variant of one Syria made at the weekend, is not mentioned in Mr Annan's proposals and looks designed to complicate his struggle to get all parties to comply with a six-point plan that is so far largely a dead letter.
The rebel Free Syrian Army will fight on if Dr Assad fails to withdraw troops and tanks from in and around cities as required, a spokesman, Col Qassem Saad al-Deen, said.
The opposition Syrian National Council said a partial ceasefire was unacceptable and government forces should stop all violence today. Its spokeswoman, Basma Kodmani, also told a news conference in Geneva that arrests, house demolitions and shelling by tanks and anti-aircraft guns were continuing.
The Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots activist group, said Assad's "corrupt criminal regime" was only trying to buy time to impose its will by force, and chided the United Nations and Arab League for failing to restrain Damascus.
China, which along with Russia has blocked punitive UN Security Council action against Syria, said it hoped all sides would immediately obey a UN-backed ceasefire aimed at stopping a 13-month uprising from sliding into full-scale civil war.
Moscow and Beijing have both supported Mr Annan's plan, which diplomats say still gives Dr Assad until midnight in Syria (9pm Irish time) to start withdrawing troops from urban areas.
Extra conditions set by Damascus have fuelled widespread doubts that the deadline for a full truce, to start by 6 am on Thursday, would be respected.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had told Mr Moualem that Syria could be "more active, more decisive" in meeting the terms of Mr Annan's plan, but he also urged foreign states to lean on opposition groups to stop shooting forthwith.
Mr Moualem said some troops had already pulled back from cities in line with the peace plan, but he tied a full ceasefire to the entry of foreign monitors, another apparently new condition.
"An end of violence must be simultaneous with the arrival of the international observers," he said, adding that Syria wants a say in how the ceasefire monitoring team is composed.
The UN peacekeeping department sent an advance team to Damascus last week to discuss how to carry out Mr Annan's plan for "an effective United Nations supervision mechanism".
An Arab League monitoring effort collapsed in January as intensifying violence made a mockery of an Arab ceasefire plan.
Dr Assad's forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year, according to a UN estimate. Damascus says rebels have killed more than 2,500 soldiers and security personnel.
Reuters