Saudi Arabia is to pull its observers from a widely criticised Arab League mission to Syria, as a panel recommended the body extend its observer mission to the unrest-swept country.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in Cairo that the move, which hints at sharp differences of opinion within the League's ranks, was being taken because Damascus had not kept its promises.
Riyadh "is withdrawing from the mission because the Syrian government has not respected any of the clauses" in the Arab plan aimed at ending the crisis, he said according to the text of a statement he made at a ministerial meeting.
Earlier, a League official confirmed after a panel met behind closed doors to hear a report on the mission that its recommendation would be an extension.
"Yes, that's what is going to be recommended to the plenary session," the official said ahead of a decisive meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.
The panel was briefed on the first month of the Syria monitoring mission by its chief, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan.
Dabi wants his mandate to be strengthened, not scrapped, another League official said earlier.
In a statement late on Saturday, the general said the mission's mandate was "to verify that the Syrian government has implemented the terms of an Arab League plan to solve the crisis, not to stop the bloodshed and violence."
But the opposition Syrian National Council, which been lobbying in Cairo for UN intervention, said it would reveal "a counter-report" later on Sunday to try to discredit Dabi's account.
The Dabi report blames both sides, the government and opposition, for the bloodshed, according to an Arab diplomatic source. It recommends an extension while cautioning that its observers would not be deployed indefinitely.
Fierce clashes erupted late on Saturday in Douma, just northeast of Damascus, after security forces shot dead four civilians at a funeral there, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Groups of deserters took control of all districts in the town of Douma... after fierce fighting" with security forces, the Observatory's chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
"Dissident groups withdrew from the town and returned to their bases," the Britain-based group later said in a statement, without giving a toll.
Clashes also erupted on Sunday outside Douma between security forces and defectors in what appeared to be a regime bid to recapture the town, the Observatory said.
It said one civilian was shot dead in Douma, and said two officers and a soldier were killed, along with a deserter and a civilian in the Talfita area of Damascus province. A seventh person was killed in Idlib in the northwest, it said.
The official SANA news agency spoke of two officers killed in Douma by "a terrorist group."
The Arab League observer mission has come under strong criticism that it has failed to stem 10 months of deadly violence.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi was chairing the broader meeting of foreign ministers from the 22-member bloc to decide the future of the mission launched a month ago.
The opposition SNC said it also plans to send a delegation to the United Nations to press the Security Council for intervention.
Neighbouring Turkey, which has called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, said on Sunday it was ready to work with the United Nations if a humanitarian crisis developed in Syria.
"We hope that before the situation reaches that stage, the Syrian administration will halt the unjust war it has waged against its own people and find ways to make peace with its people," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
"But if a humanitarian tragedy unfolds before our eyes, and if the UN steps in, we are ready to work with the United Nations."
International pressure has been steadily growing on Assad's regime, with more than 5,400 people killed since anti-government protests broke out last March, according to UN figures.
The Arab League deployed observers in Syria on December 26, and there are presently about 165 monitors on the ground.
The Local Coordination Committees, which organises anti-regime protests, said in a statement on Sunday that 976 people have been killed in a bloody crackdown on dissent since the League observer mission began.
Qatar has proposed that Arab troops be deployed in Syria, but Damascus rejects that idea outright.
In violence on Saturday, a roadside bomb killed 17 detainees in a prison truck in Idlib province in the northwest of the country, said the Observatory.
State news agency SANA said "an armed terrorist group" attacked the vehicle in Al-Mastouma area, "killing 14 prisoners and wounding 26 others."
Nine government troops and a deserter were killed in clashes with dissident soldiers near a roadblock in the central city of Maaret Numan, the Observatory reported.
Syrian authorities overnight returned the body of a slain Lebanese boy and freed his two uncles, who said their fishing boat came under fire from Syrian forces along the maritime border on Saturday.
