Syrian opposition activists have said that they are disappointed by the Arab League observer mission, but fear its failure to halt a deadly 10-month crackdown on pro-democracy protests could lead to foreign intervention.
Critics say the Arab observer mission has been completely outmanoeuvred by the government in Damascus, with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood accusing it of covering up "crimes of the Syrian regime."
The Arab League decided in Cairo on Sunday to boost the manpower of its mission to Syria, despite the mounting criticism of its operations.
The bloc also asked the mission to report by 19 January on Syrian compliance with its plan to end the violence, which first erupted in March last year.
But the bloc's decision to boost the 163 observers it has already deployed was put on hold on Wednesday after three monitors were slightly injured when their team of 11 was attacked in the port city of Latakia on Monday.
Opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council (SNC) called Sunday's meeting in Cairo a step backwards and urged the League to "immediately" begin talks on proposing the Arab peace plan to the Security Council to "prevent procrastination."
The monitoring team has been in Syria since 26 December to oversee a deal to protect civilians, which requires the government to end violence, withdraw the army from the main cities, admit journalists and free political prisoners.
But the death toll, which the UN says has now exceeded 5,000, has kept climbing despite the mission's presence, with some 400 people reportedly killed since it arrived.
Elsewhere, the Syrian government has said that it would set up a commission of inquiry into the death of French journalist Gilles Jacquier, killed by a shell in the flashpoint city of Homs yesterday.
