Arab foreign ministers have agreed a new political roadmap for Syria.
The plan sees President Bashar al-Assad delegating power to a deputy and setting up a unity government as a prelude to early parliamentary and presidential elections.
Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that the Arab League would take its initiative to the UN Security Council and ask for its endorsement.
Saudi Arabia has said that it is withdrawing its observers from Syria after an Arab monitoring mission failed to end 10 months of bloodshed, and called on the international community to exert "all possible pressure" on Damascus.
Hundreds of Syrians have been killed since the observers began their work in late December and political opponents of Mr Assad are demanding the Arab League refer the crisis to the United Nations Security Council.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby reported to Arab foreign ministers in Cairo today that Syria had only partly met the terms of an Arab peace plan and that a monitoring mission to Syria be extended, expanded and get more technical support.
After a day of meetings over how to handle the Syrian crisis, the foreign ministers were expected to recommend that Syria create a unity government including opposition figures within two months to prepare for early parliamentary and presidential elections, a draft of the final statement showed.
It was not clear how the Arab League might enforce those recommendations given its failure to stop the violence, in which the United Nations says at least 5,000 people have killed.
