Syria's Assad says military operations 'stopped'

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The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says activists continue to report deaths and "the repression goes on"

Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has told UN chief Ban Ki-moon that military
operations against protesters have "stopped", a UN spokesman said.

He was responding to a demand from Mr Ban during a phone call
that "all military operations and mass arrests must cease immediately,"
the UN's Farhan Haq said in a statement.


Mr Assad is under international pressure to end his violent crackdown.


Activists say more than 20 people were killed on Wednesday alone.


Nearly 2,000 people are believed to have been killed and tens
of thousands have been arrested since the crackdown began in March.


In the latest assault, Syrian forces fired on parts of the
port city of Latakia, killing dozens and driving some 5,000 Palestinian
refugees from their camps.


'Excessive force'
"The secretary general expressed alarm at the latest reports
of continued widespread violations of human rights and excessive use of
force by Syrian security forces against civilians across Syria," the UN
statement said.


Mr Ban "emphasized that all military operations and mass
arrests must cease immediately. President Assad said that the military
and police operations had stopped," it added.


The UN chief called on Damascus to introduce "credible"
reforms and offer full co-operation to a UN human rights investigation
into the crackdown.


The UN said Mr Assad listed the reforms he planned to take,
which included constitutional change and elections, while also agreeing
to receive a UN humanitarian mission.


The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the Syrian authorities have
staged highly-publicised troop withdrawals from three trouble-spots in
the past couple of weeks - first the central city of Hama, then Deir
al-Zour in the east, and now the Ramel district of Latakia on the
western coast.


But troops and tanks were pulled out only after they had done
the job of restoring control by force, and there are many other
instruments of security left behind to maintain the government's grip,
he says.


At this stage in the uprising, our correspondent adds, it is
clear that if the regime really were to stand down all its many
instruments of control - there are believed to be at least 17 different
security organisations - large parts of the country would slide out of
its grasp.


The UN Security Council is due to hold a special session on Syria later on Thursday.


President Bashar Assad came to power in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez.


He has responded to the challenge to his power with a
combination of force and the promise of reforms, but has been unable to
quell the revolt.


Given what has been happening on the ground, neither Mr
Assad's critics abroad nor the activists in Syria give much credence to
the regime's ability to reform itself from within, our correspondent
says.


The unrest began following the toppling of Tunisian President
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak early this
year.