Arab League presents Syria peace plan to Bashar al-Assad

Syrian forces killed 12 opposition supporters over the weekend even as the head of the Arab League was finally allowed into Damascus to issue a demand for a halt to the violence.

Nabil Elaraby, the movement's secretary general, presented President Bashar al-Assad with a 13-point document detailing Arab proposals to end the bloodshed and usher in a new era of reform.

The meeting came amid fresh tension between Syria and the Arab League, which has grown increasingly vocal over Mr Assad's suppression against pro-democracy protests which have seen more than 2,200 people killed since mid-March.

Mr Elaraby was forced to delay his visit, which had initially been scheduled for Wednesday of last week, because of the Assad regime's fury after he held talks with senior figures in the Syrian opposition.

The veteran Egyptian diplomat, who assumed his Arab League position in May, claimed to have made a breakthrough, winning a promise from Mr Assad to open dialogue with the opposition and bring the violence to a close.

"I focused on the importance of an open national dialogue that encompasses all personalities on the basis of national reconciliation, in which the Arab League plays a main role," he told reporters.

Mr Elaraby's optimism was sharply at odds with a growing determination to punish Mr Assad in Western capitals.

Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said the moment for reforms had passed. Setting the stage for a potential confrontation with Russia, he demanded that Moscow abandon its opposition to a UN Security Council resolution denouncing the Assad regime.

"We think the regime has lost its legitimacy, that it's too later to implement a programme of reform," he said during a visit to Australia. "Now we would adopt in New York the resolution condemning the violence and supporting the dialogue with the opposition."

"It's a scandal not to have a clearer position of the UN on such a terrible crisis."

The US state department has said it is working on a new draft resolution which could be circulated within the Security Council before the end of the month.

Renewed violence erupted in Syria over the weekend, with eight people being shot dead by the security forces in the central Homs province, and four more in the south of the country, opposition activists said.