Assad says assaults over, UN readies Syria meet

On the ground, however, security forces killed at least 10 people and made sweeping arrests on Wednesday, said activists, who have reported around 2,000 deaths in the five-month-old uprising against Assad\'s rule.

Ban spoke to Assad by telephone ahead of the Security Council meeting, at which diplomats in New York said the UN human rights chief was expected to call for the international war crimes court to investigate Assad\'s deadly crackdown.

The UN chief "expressed alarm at the latest reports of continued widespread violations of human rights and excessive use of force by Syrian security forces against civilians across Syria," deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Ban "emphasized that all military operations and mass arrests must cease immediately. President Assad said that the military and police operations had stopped," according to the spokesman.

The United Nations said Assad "enumerated the reforms he will undertake in the next few months" including constitutional change and elections, while Ban stressed that such steps must go ahead "without further military intervention."

Ban called on Syria to give full cooperation to a UN human rights inquiry in Syria, the spokesman said, and demanded Assad launch "a credible and peaceful process of reform."

Assad reportedly agreed to receive a UN humanitarian mission which Ban said must "be provided with independent and unhindered access to all areas," while the president offered "access to different sites in Syria," the spokesman said.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Nicosia after having spoken by telephone to activists in several towns across Syria that the situation appeared to be calm early on Thursday.

"I have not heard of any military action until now, apart from gunshots heard in (the port city of) Latakia. But the situation could change at any moment," he said.

"The regime has made so many arrests over the two two weeks. We know of more than 400 in Latakia alone earlier this week. They have taken away the activists, the leaders who organise the big demonstrations," he said.

In Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided on Thursday to hold a special session on Monday 22 to examine Syria\'s deadly crackdown on protesters.

The session, the second on Syria this year, was requested by 24 members of the council, including European Union members, the United States and all four Arab member countries, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

In New York, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and humanitarian chief Valerie Amos were to give details of the latest events in the strife-torn country at Thursday\'s Security Council meeting.

The rights chief was to refer to "evidence that Syria has committed grave violations of international human rights law," one diplomat told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

At the meeting due to start at 1900 GMT, expected to be held behind closed doors, Pilly was "likely to suggest that the International Criminal Court would be appropriate," another diplomatic source said.

A defiant Assad on Wednesday told his ruling Baath party that Syria would "remain strong and resilient" despite international pressure, adding he had promised reforms "because Syrians were convinced of their necessity."

Since April, the embattled president has tried to quell the growing protests. He has lifted a state of emergency in force since 1963 and authorised political parties alongside the Baath.

A key demand of the opposition has been the removal of Article 8 of the constitution which stipulates that the Baath party is the sole "leader of state and society," giving it a monopoly on power.

The United Nations said on Wednesday it has withdrawn about 25 international staff and dozens of families of expatriate workers from Syria due to mounting security fears.

In defiance of growing international condemnation, hundreds of Syrian security services raided homes in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia on Wednesday, activists said.

According to rights groups, the crackdown on dissent in Syria has killed 1,827 civilians, while 416 security forces have also died in what the authorities have said was a campaign against terrorists and armed gangs.

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.