UK wants Syrian peacekeepers

The British government on Monday supported an Arab League proposal for a peacekeeping force to be deployed in Syria. The Arab League had said troops from its member states could work in conjunction with the United Nations to observe a ceasefire in the troubled country.

"We will discuss urgently with the Arab League and our international partners the proposals for a joint AL/UN peacekeeping force," Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement. "Such a mission could have an important role to play in saving lives, provided the Assad regime ends the violence against civilians, withdraws its forces from towns and cities and secures a credible ceasefire."

Hague's Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, said the Kremlin was "studying this initiative," but also cautioned that "you need to agree something resembling a ceasefire" before peacekeepers could be deployed. Russia, along with China, opposed a UN resolution that would have condemned the violence and indirectly demanded that President Bashar al-Assad relinquish power.

The Syrian government also issued a response to the Arab League suggestion on Sunday, saying it "categorically rejects the decisions of the Arab League."

Hague said Britain would take a "very active part" in the new Group of Friends of Syria, reminiscent of the Libya Contact Group, which has been established to increase political and financial support for the Syrian opposition.

At a special meeting in Cairo on Sunday, the Arab League had also said its member states would bring a "halt to all kinds of diplomatic cooperation with representatives of the Syrian regime in all states and organizations and international conferences."

Hague said that the body "could not have sent a clearer message to Syria."

Further fighting reported

On Monday, Syrian activist again said that they had come under fire from government forces - primarily in the central city of Homs, a flashpoint for the fighting so far. Opposition groups say that as many as 500 people have died in Homs since February 4, when the fighting escalated.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and International Committee of the Red Cross said they had volunteers in Homs "distributing food, medical supplies, blankets, and hygiene consumables to thousands of people."

Over the past 11 months in Syria, anti-government protests have at times been met with violent responses. The United Nations estimated in January that a total of 5,400 people had been killed in that period.

The Syrian government says the unrest is the work of foreign terrorists.

The chairman of Germany's Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, said in a newspaper interview on Monday that the German government should look to establish regular airlifts into Syria to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

"There are shortages of everything, especially in places like Homs, Zabdani - a suburb of Damascus - and in Idlib," Mazyek, who holds both German and Syrian citizenship, told the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung.

msh/mz (AFP, AP, dpa)