Arab League foreign ministers are due to meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss Arab monitors' mission in Syria and whether Damascus is honoring its pledge to end a 10-month-old crackdown on unrest and protests.
During the meeting, the Arab mission will issue its first findings and its chief Lt General Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi is scheduled to give his report.
Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed bin Helli said al-Dabi will brief the League committee with photographs, maps and comprehensive information on what they witnessed.
The ministers will also discuss ways the mission might operate more independently of Syrian authorities and whether to ask the United Nations to help in their mission.
Qatar, which heads the league, proposes inviting UN technicians and human rights experts to help Arab monitors judge whether Syria is honoring its pledge to stop its repression, Arab League sources said.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, said Syria was not implementing the terms of the Arab League peace plan it agreed, and monitors could not stay in Syria to "waste time".
The Syrian army had not withdrawn from cities and there had been no end to the killing, he said. Arab League sources said ministers were likely to reaffirm support for the monitors, 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
Syria says it is providing the monitors with all they need and has urged them to show "objectivity and professionalism".
Ten Jordanian monitors arrived in Damascus on Saturday, bringing to 153 the number of monitors involved. The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the uprising against Assad.
The 22-member Arab League suspended Syria in November after months of silence over the crackdown but some Arab leaders are uncomfortable about targeting one of their peers given their own restive populations, diplomats say.
Assad's opponents say Syrian authorities have systematically deceived the monitors, for instance by hiding prisoners in military facilities, falsifying routes and staging events for the monitors's benefit.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Antakya in Turkey, says protesters across the country are calling for international intervention and an end to the Arab League mission, which most Syrians view as a failure.
It is the first time the Arab League has dispatched a peace monitoring mission to gauge one of its members.
"The opposition says the continuing violence, the killing of civilians and restrictions on the observer mission are all clear indications the government has failed to comply with the peace plan and now they want the international community to step in and use whatever means available to enforce a radical change in Syria," our correspondent says.
Western powers that want Assad to step down to allow for democratic reforms have welcomed the League's toughened stance in recent weeks.
Arab states remain wary of any foreign military intervention like that which helped remove Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of oil-rich Libya, last year.
PHOTO CAPTION
Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Amude, January 6, 2012.
Aljazeera