Syria yesterday demanded written guarantees that insurgents will stop fighting before it pulls back troops under the terms of a peace plan, casting additional doubt over a truce due to start this week.
Escalating violence has already raised questions about the ceasefire.
Opposition activists said dozens of people were killed and wounded yesterday when President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists shelled a rebel area near the border with Turkey.
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, seeking to end the conflict that has killed more than 9000 people in the past year, said the latest bloodshed violated the guarantees he had been given and urged Damascus to keep its promises.
The deal Annan brokered calls on Syria to begin the pull-back of troops from around towns and cities by tomorrow for a truce to start 48 hours later.
While emphasising that would happen, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said in a statement that Syria also wanted the written guarantees.
"Syria has a plan for military pullback already in place and it is being implemented, but completing and achieving the main goal would definitely require the guarantees from the other side and those supporting them to abide by the terms of calm," Mr Makdissi said.
Syria also sought guarantees that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – outspoken in criticising Assad – would not fund the armed groups.
Annan made no specific reference to the new Syrian demands in a statement from his office in Geneva.
He expressed shock at the "surge in violence and atrocities".
Each side has accused the other of intensifying assaults in the run-up to the truce.
"As we get closer to tomorrow's deadline, I remind the Syrian government of the need for full implementation of its commitments and stress that the present escalation of violence is unacceptable," he said.
Dozens of people were killed and wounded when Assad's tanks shelled an area in the rebel province of Idlib, near the border with Turkey, opposition activists said. Fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army were surrounded in the village of al-Bashiriya, the activists added.
"The army is shelling al-Rouge with tanks, and helicopters are firing rockets at al-Bashiriya," said activist Mahmoud Ali, with the sound of helicopters audible on the phone.
"Tens of people have fallen dead or injured but we cannot get to them because the bombardment is heavy."
A major Syrian army offensive to seize back large swathes of Idlib that had fallen under rebel control has killed and wounded hundreds of people in the last 10 days.
Thousands of Syrians have now fled to neighbouring Turkey.
No comment on the fighting was immediately available from Syrian officials last night.
The government has placed tight restrictions on media access in Syria, making it hard to verify witness accounts.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article