Diplomats Accuse Syria of Holding Up Truce Monitors Accord

Syria is holding up an accord with an advance party of U.N. ceasefire monitors which threatens approval for the full mission, diplomats said Tuesday.

Negotiations have become deadlocked on a memorandum of understanding which would allow the eight U.N. monitors currently in Syria to operate across the country, diplomats said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria to give the unarmed military observers free access across the country where the U.N. says well over 9,000 people have been killed in the past 13 months of conflict.

"It is the Syrian government's responsibility to guarantee freedom of access and freedom of movement within the country of these observers," the U.N. leader said during a visit to Luxembourg.

One senior U.N. diplomat said that if President Bashar al-Assad's government does not make an accord by the end of the week then the Security Council could not allow the full mission of 200-250 observers.

Following recommendations from U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, the U.N. Security Council resolution which sent the advance party said there had to be "full, unimpeded, and immediate freedom of movement and access" for monitors.

"I think there is a risk that the Syrians will not agree to all of that and we will have to decide what to do," said the diplomat.

"I think we will be in a reasonable position to judge by the end of this week whether the Syrians are prepared to stick to the obligations they are now under as a result of the resolution and facilitate the operation of the advanced mission or not," the envoy added.

"There is a holdup and it looks like the Syrians are doing it deliberately," a second diplomat told Agence France Presse.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of Security Council negotiations on Syria.

The Security Council resolution passed on Saturday, the first monitors arrived on Sunday and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon must produce a report by Wednesday on their work.

Annan is to brief the council before the end of the week, diplomats said.