Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, will meet President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus tomorrow but only talk with opposition leaders outside of the conflict-stricken country, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said.
Ban said Annan would not leave Damascus on his first trip to the country since being named the international envoy with a daunting mission to end Assad's year old clampdown on protests.
Annan, Ban's predecessor as UN secretary general, will leave Damascus on Sunday and then visit other countries in the region, Ban told reporters at the UN headquarters.
The schedule has not yet been decided, he added, though diplomatic sources in Ankara said Annan's first stop from Damascus would be Turkey.
"He will be engaging with opposition leaders outside of Syria," Ban added.
The UN says that well over 7,500 people have died in the year-old crackdown which has seen an intensive assault by government forces on protest cities such as Homs.
Ban stressed that Annan's priority must be to halt the violence by government and opposition forces. "There should be an inclusive political solution."
"I very strongly urged Kofi Annan to ensure there must be an immediate ceasefire," Ban declared. "I also asked him to urge Assad to facilitate humanitarian assistance and access."
Annan's visit will come one day after UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos left Damascus in her bid to secure relief access to the protest cities. Amos said much of Homs had been "devastated" by the government assault of recent months.
Anger at Annan's call for dialogue
Meanwhile, the leader of Syria's main opposition group has rejected calls by UN envoy Kofi Annan for dialogue with President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris based leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, said negotiations were pointless and unrealistic as the regime massacres its own people.
Mr Ghalioun told the Associated Press that Mr Annan already has disappointed the Syrian people.
Mr Annan yesterday warned against further militarisation of the Syrian conflict and urged the opposition to come together with the government to find a political solution.
''The killing has to stop and we need to find a way of putting in the appropriate reforms and moving forward," Mr Annan said in Cairo, ahead of his arrival in Syria.
He also said he would be making "realistic" proposals to resolve the conflict, though he did not elaborate further.
"These kind of comments are disappointing and do not give a lot of hope for people in Syria being massacred every day," Mr Ghalioun said.
"My fear is that, like other international envoys before him, the aim is to waste a month or two of pointless mediation efforts," he added.
Syrian activists also rejected Mr Annan's call for dialogue.
"We reject any dialogue while tanks shell our towns, snipers shoot our women and children and many areas are cut off from the world by the regime without electricity, communications or water," said Hadi Abdullah, an activist contacted in Homs.
From the Damascus suburb of Douma, activist Mohammad Saeed said: "It seems he lives on Mars.”
"Between us and Bashar Assad are the bodies of 5,000 martyrs. We can't hear each other even if we wanted to," he said.
Activists said the violence is continuing in Homs as Syrian tanks fired on opposition districts, killing four people.
Opponents of Mr Assad said they are planning to show their strength in the streets after weekly Muslim prayers, but the tankfire kept many indoors in Homs.
Syrian security forces have already killed well over 7,500 people since the anti-Assad uprising began a year ago, according to a UN estimate.
