CAIRO // Syria promised yesterday to withdraw its tanks and troops from the streets and free political prisoners in an Arab League initiative to end seven months of violence.
"We are happy to have reached this agreement and we will be even happier when it is implemented immediately," the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, said after a ministerial meeting at the league's headquarters in Cairo.
The blueprint requires President Bashar Al Assad's regime to allow Arab League representatives and foreign journalists to monitor the situation.
The league would continue to act as a go-between for the Syrian government and the opposition "in preparation for a national dialogue within two weeks", Mr Al Thani said.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Mr Assad's government must swiftly put the deal into action. "He must implement the agreement as soon as possible, as agreed," Mr Ban said in Tripoli on his first visit to Libya since the eruption in February of the conflict that toppled the dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
"People have suffered too much for too long and it's an unacceptable situation. Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria."
The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in March.
Damascus had come under mounting pressure to agree to the Arab League peace plan, with western governments calling for a renewed attempt to push through a sanctions resolution at the UN Security Council after a first bid was vetoed by China and Russia early last month.
On Sunday, China warned Syria its crackdown on dissent "cannot continue" and that it must agree to talk with the opposition.
"Syria has to show some flexibility in that regard in order to help the Arab League implement its proposal," China's Middle East envoy, Wu Sike, said in Cairo.
A league official said Syria had accepted the detailed road map without reservation or changes, but it was not immediately clear what impact the move would have on the ground.
Mr Al Assad's response to the movement against him has strained relations with neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon.
The Arab League plan was submitted on Sunday to the Syrian foreign minister, Walid Muallem, at a meeting in Doha. A reply had been initially due on Monday but Syria asked for a delay to allow its leadership to consider the proposals.
The text does not specify a venue for the dialogue between the government, which insists on Damascus, and the opposition, which says it must be outside Syria.
More than 30 people were killed in violence yesterday, most of them security force personnel killed in clashes with troops who had mutinied rather than follow orders to shoot civilians, a human-rights group said.
Deserters killed 15 members of the security forces in two operations in the flashpoint central province of Hama. "A group of deserters blew up a device as a military van and a vehicle passed by in Al Madiq area, killing seven soldiers," the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Eight more were killed in a similar attack on a convoy carrying security agents and pro-regime militiamen on the road between Qaalet Al Madiq and Sqailbiyeh.
The Observatory said the attacks were carried out "in response to the massacre of 11 workers" earlier in the day by a pro-Assad group in Homs, another province in central Syria that has been a centre of dissent.
The gunmen stormed a factory in the province, killing the 11, while security forces shot dead eight civilians in several Homs neighbourhoods, the rights watchdog said.
The Syrian regime has repeatedly said it is fighting "armed terrorists" and Mr Al Assad pledged to carry out reforms but stressed he would not make changes amid chaos.
Before the Arab ministers' meeting, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) had urged the League to "freeze Syria's membership, ensure the protection of civilians and recognise the SNC as the representative of the Syrian revolution".
The statement followed a similar call on Sunday by Facebook activists, after almost 100 people died on Friday and Saturday in the bloodiest two days of the uprising.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the Associated Press
