The Secretary General of the Arab League has said the Syrian army has withdrawn from residential areas to the outskirts of the country's main cities.
Nabil Elaraby also warned that snipers remained a threat in the ongoing government crackdown on protesters.
Activists say 10 people were killed today, including six in the city of Homs.
Earlier, the Arab League announced plans to send more observers to Syria to join the 66 monitors all ready in the country.
The move comes despite criticism of the mission from the Arab parliament which has called for the immediate withdrawal of the monitors, saying their presence in Syria was having no effect on halting the violence.
Many Syrian opposition activists are sceptical that the mission can put real pressure on President Assad to halt the violence.
Mr Elaraby said the League would report on the monitors' first week of work and decide if more were needed. He said 70 monitors were currently working in six cities, and 30 others would arrive soon.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in a crackdown on protests which broke out against President Bashar al-Assad in March. Syrian authorities say armed groups have killed 2,000 security forces personnel.
The Arab League mission was also making a difference by getting food supplies into Homs, a hotbed of anti-government protests, and evacuating dead bodies, Mr Elaraby added.
Elaraby defended the record so far of Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, chief of the monitoring contingent.
Gen Dabi last week raised fears among opposition groups that the monitoring effort could whitewash the Assad government when he said there was "nothing frightening" happening in Homs.
Mr Elaraby said he expected Gen Dabi to return to Cairo by the end of the week and present a report on what was achieved in the first week of monitoring. Arab foreign ministers would then decide if the number of monitors should be increased.
