Syria presented a series of conditions under which it will accept monitors sent by the Arab League, as eight more protesters were killed by security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
The league's proposal is acceptable only if a series of economic sanctions imposed on Syria is annulled, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said in a letter to the group, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency.
Syria presented a number of other conditions and the Cairo-based Arab League said it was studying the letter, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency reported. On Saturday, the league ordered a freeze on the assets of 19 Syrian officials, a ban on their travel and a reduction in flights to Syria if the government refuses to admit international monitors, release political prisoners and end its crackdown on protests.
An increasingly isolated Syria imposed retaliatory sanctions on former friend Turkey, but said yesterday it might agree "soon" to an Arab peace plan to avert penalties from Arab states over its eight month crackdown on protests.
In a display of muscle that could be intended to deter any idea of foreign military intervention in a crisis which has killed at least 4,000 people, the army staged a big exercise with rockets, tanks and helicopters.
Top generals watched the war games yesterday and Syrian state television made it their top news story.
Five civilians were killed by security forces in Homs, the country's third largest city, according to the activist website Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Four died when troops fired on a funeral procession and one man was shot at a hospital. A youth died of gunshot wounds sustained at the weekend.
In southern Deraa province, three members of the security forces were shot dead by army defectors in front of the Dael courthouse, the website reported. The corpse of Ismail Aqla al-Amri (35) was handed to back relatives in Deraa, a victim of state torture, it said.
Already hit by economic sanctions from the United States and Europe, Syria was punished last month by regional countries, with sanctions announced by the Arab League and imposed by Turkey, once President Bashar al-Assad's ally.
Syria responded to Turkey today with retaliatory measures, imposing a tariff of 30 per cent on its imports and prohibitive duties on fuel and freight. State news agency SANA quoted a pro-Assad economist as saying Turkey would be "the biggest loser".
Syria says the Arab proposal to admit observers infringes its sovereignty, and has asked for clarification. It has stalled more than once and reneged on promises to rein in its forces.
SANA expressed regret mixed with defiance at the prospect of Arab sanctions.
"The Arab League sanctions ... have been a shock for every Syrian and Arab citizen ... as these sanctions came from sisterly countries," it said. "Syria will overcome those sanctions by virtue of its strategic location and the diversity of its production sectors," the state agency added.
Syria's Arab neighbours Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan have all said they would not join a sanctions campaign.
In a reminder to outsiders of Syria's powerful, mainly Russian-supplied armed forces, state TV and SANA showed top generals watching a live-fire exercise by missile units, mechanised brigades and aircraft, to test their capacity in "confronting any attack" on Syria.
It did not report the scale of the war games.
"General (Dawood Abdullah) Rajiha stressed that the armed forces, under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad will remain loyal to the homeland and will defend the interests of the Syrian people," SANA said. Rajiha is Minister of Defence.
Mr Makdesi, the foreign ministry spokesman, said the war games were a "routine" exercise and not intended to send any message.
The first cracks appeared in one of the pillars of Dr Assad's regime at the weekend with the desertion of some members of the secret police to the ranks of a rebel "free army".
At least a dozen members of the secret police deserted from the Airforce Intelligence complex in Idlib city, 280 km northwest of Damascus, triggering a gunbattle with defectors in which 10 were killed or wounded on either side, activists said.
Opposition sources said a further 16 soldiers defected from units in Idlib yesterday and a new group of defectors of similar size battled loyalist troops to the south, in the Josieh area on the border with Lebanon.
Dr Assad's opponents estimate the strength of the rebel force at several thousand, mainly army recruits from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority. Members of Dr Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, have a tight grip on the military and security apparatus.
The conscript armed forces have more than 200,000 men.
Reuters