Arab League Delegation to Syria Next Week

Syria has agreed to allow an Arab League delegation to visit Damascus in a bid to defuse the deadly violence there, the 22-member body said in a statement on Thursday.

"We have received approval from the Syrian government to receive a ministerial delegation, headed by Qatar on Wednesday, October 26," Assistant Secretary General Wagih Hanafi said.

The delegation will also include Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi and the foreign ministers of Algeria, Egypt, Oman and Sudan.

At an urgent session in Cairo on October 16, the Arab League called for "national dialogue" in the Egyptian capital between Syria's government and the opposition by the end of the month to help end the violence and avoid "foreign intervention" in Syria.

But the proposal was swiftly slammed by Syria's official media.

The United Nations estimates more than 3,000 people, including 187 children, have been killed in a fierce crackdown on dissent in Syria.