The United States termed as "significant" a Syrian opposition meeting in Damascus where they called for democracy and a peaceful end to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
"This is a significant event," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
"It's the first meeting of this kind in many decades. About 160 people are attending it. We don't have any outcomes yet but it is the first meeting of opposition figures in Syria," he said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
PRESSING AHEAD
Attendees vowed to press ahead with a peaceful uprising, as his embattled regime invited opponents to talks next month.
"There are two ways forward -- the first a clear and non-negotiable move to a peaceful transition to democracy which would rescue our country and our people," opposition activist Munzer Khaddam told the meeting.
"The alternative is a road that leads into the unknown and which will destroy everyone," he said.
The opposition figures, who said they were all independent of any party affiliation, had gathered in a Damascus hotel to discuss a way out of the crisis in a public meeting they said was unprecedented in five decades of iron-fisted Baath party rule.
The authorities, meanwhile, invited the opposition to a meeting to discuss key changes to the constitution amid the deadly wave of unrest that has pitted pro-democracy protesters against security forces since mid-March.
SANA, the state news agency, said the authorities set the talks for July 10.
The meeting would open a debate on the constitution, "especially clause 8" which stipulates the ruling Baath is the leader of both the Syrian state and society, it said.
Removing clause 8 has been a key opposition demand.
Assad on Monday discussed the "legitimate demands of his people, current events and the implementation of reforms," in a meeting with visiting US congressman Dennis Kucinich, official media said.
PEACEFUL MEANS
In a document they called a "pledge," the dissidents vowed to remain "part of Syria's peaceful uprising for freedom and democracy and pluralism to establish a democratic state through peaceful means."
They said they rejected "resorting to security measures to solve the deep structural crisis that Syria is suffering," and condemned "any discourse or behaviour that divides Syrians on the basis of race or religion."
The opposition also demanded the right to demonstrate peacefully, the release of political prisoners, freedom of the press, the safe return of refugees and moves to prevent foreign intervention.
Anwar Bunni, a prominent human rights lawyer who spent five years behind bars, said it was the "first meeting of its kind at a public venue announced in advance."
"The tyrannical regime in power must go," said opposition writer and leading activist Louai Hussein, who spent 1984 to 1991 in jail for his involvement in the banned communist party.
Michel Kilo, a former political prisoner and leading democracy activist, warned the authorities' "security solution" could lead to Syria's "destruction."
"Society must shape power and not the other way around," he said, calling for the whole structure of the regime to be uprooted.
In Washington, the US State Department hailed this "first meeting of opposition figures in Syria" as "significant," even if there are no "outcomes yet."
"It's the first meeting of this kind in many decades. About 160 people are attending it," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
The president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, Abdel Karim Rihawi, said the meeting's aim was not intended to replace "protesters in the street."
Bunni told AFP that Assad's opponents would join his proposed "national dialogue" only if peaceful demonstrations were authorised, political prisoners freed, the opposition recognised and the use of force ended.
Some dissidents who gathered in Damascus distanced themselves from opposition activists who met in the Turkish resort of Antalya this month and who included members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and secular politicians.
"We have no links with the opposition activists abroad -- we too question their real objectives," said writer Nabil Saleh.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 1,342 civilians have been killed in the government's crackdown on protesters and that 342 security force personnel have also died.
Security forces this week pressed their deadly sweep for dissidents towards Syria's borders, sending some 11,000 refugees fleeing into Turkey and hundreds more into Lebanon.
Meanwhile some 300 students detained last week after a rare protest in Syria's second city Aleppo have been charged with "sabotage" and "insulting the president," an activist said.
"It is a new sign that the authorities are set on deepening the crisis rather than finding political solutions," said Radif Mustafa, chairman of the Kurdish Human Rights Committee.
