The UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, will travel to Damascus on Saturday for his first visit since being appointed to the post, the organisation said today.
"Kofi Annan told me that Syria will receive him on March 10th and that he would arrive in Cairo on March 7th," Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby told reporters at the group's Cairo headquarters.
Mr Annan was appointed last month as joint special envoy on the Syria crisis.
The United Nations says more than 7,500 people have been killed in an almost year-long crackdown on demonstrators against president Bashar al-Assad that was inspired by other 'Arab Spring' uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
Nasser al-Kidwa, a Palestinian diplomat appointed as deputy to Mr Annan will travel with him to Syria, Mr Elaraby said.
Mr al-Kidwa, a nephew of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, is a member of current president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and has previously served as a foreign minister and an envoy to the United Nations.
Mr al-Kidwa was appointed after consultations with Mr Annan and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the League said without specifying what his new role would entail.
Syria's military pursued a crackdown on rebels on several fronts today, days after eliminating an opposition bastion in the central city of Homs following a 26-day siege, activists said.
Braving army patrols and winter weather, hundreds of Syrians crossed into Lebanon in the last 24 hours to escape the heaviest shelling of their border towns since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began last March.
In the hillside town of Arsal in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, residents said 100 to 150 families arrived from Syria yesterday - one of the biggest refugee influxes so far. Families trekked on foot through snow-capped hills to
safety, but many others were caught, one refugee told Reuters.
"My house was bombed and a giant hole was left in one side of the house," said a 21-year-old man in a black leather jacket and black and white scarf from the Syrian town of Qusair.
Syria has so far brushed off international pressure to halt its violent response to an uprising that was inspired by revolts that have toppled four Arab autocrats in the past 12 months.
Canada today became the latest country to shut its embassy in Damascus, joining the United States, Britain, France and Switzerland who have already shuttered their missions amid increasing levels of
violence.
It is imposing fresh sanctions on Syria and banning all dealings with its central bank.
Reuters