An advance peacekeeping team for UN and Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Syria to begin laying the groundwork for a potential monitoring mission that could end the government's violent crackdown on dissent, world media report.
Reuters reports that the team arrived in Damascus on Thursday, just hours after a spokesman for Annan said Syria had begun withdrawing troops from three areas as part of a cease-fire plan.
Spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters that negotiators expected a "complete cessation of violence" by an April 10 deadline that Syria agreed to meet.
In spite of continued reports of government shelling, he said Syria had committed to upholding the provisions in Annan's six-point peace plan.
"We have no doubts that we have this commitment," Fawzi said. "They have agreed to the six-point plan. They have agreed to the 10th of April deadline."
Meanwhile, rights activists reported shelling and heavy gunfire Thursday in the Damascus suburb of Douma and additional fighting in northern Aleppo province near the Turkish border.
Kofi Annan reports Syrian troop withrawal
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