10 April 2012 Last updated at 13:05 ET

Syria unrest: Annan says peace plan still alive

The international envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, says his peace plan is "very much alive" despite fresh clashes breaking out in several cities.

He appealed to both Damascus and opposition groups to end the violence as a deadline for government troops to pull out of population centres passed.

According to his UN-backed plan, the army was to have completely withdrawn from conflict areas by Tuesday.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said some troops had pulled out.

Activist groups said at least 60 people were killed on Tuesday.

Shelling in the city of Homs, a centre of resistance to President Bashar Assad's rule, killed at least 28 people, said the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an activist network.

The LCC said 20 people were killed in Hama, while there were further deaths in Aleppo and Idlib in the north, Deraa in the south and in a Damascus suburb.

'On the table'

Speaking in Turkey after visiting refugee camps for people who have fled the fighting in Syria, Mr Annan said he had hoped his peace plan "would be further along at this time".

But he said it was not too late to implement it.

"I believe it's a bit too early to say that the plan has failed. The plan is still on the table and is a plan we are all fighting to implement," he said.

"It is a plan the [UN Security] Council has endorsed. It's a plan the Syrians have endorsed and from the comments made by the opposition, they are also prepared to go along with it if the government meets its commitments to pull the troops out. So I think the plan is very much alive."

He said that according to sources, including "our own intelligence", Syrian troops had moved out of some areas but were moving to "other areas which have not previously been targets".

He said there was "rolling military action that we believe should stop".

The unrest in Syria, which began in March last year, had gone on too long, he said.

Reporting later to the UN Security Council, Mr Annan said: "It is essential that the next 48 hours bring visible signs of immediate and indisputable change in the military posture of the government forces throughout the country."

In a letter to the Security Council seen by news agencies he added that the opposition should also stop fighting in order to "give no excuse for the government to renege on its commitments".

Under his plan, sponsored by the UN and the Arab League, Syrian troops were to have completed their withdrawal from population centres and stopped the use of heavy weaponry by Tuesday, ahead of a full ceasefire coming into place on Thursday.

Damascus had agreed to the deadline, but on Sunday demanded written guarantees first that its opponents would give up arms, along with a promise from foreign states not to fund them.

Speaking in Moscow, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the withdrawal had begun in some areas, but that the ceasefire should be timed to the arrival of international monitors - something Mr Annan said he was working towards.

But Mr Muallem said that "despite all these positive measures we noticed on a daily basis the escalation of opposition by the armed terrorist gangs".

Syrian opposition representatives have said they are committed to the peace plan but that if government troops did not stop firing by Thursday, they would intensify their own operations.

The Russian foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had urged Mr Annan in a telephone call to put pressure on countries backing the Syrian opposition to make sure they stuck to the ceasefire plan.

Earlier he said the Syrian government "could have been more active and decisive" in implementing the plan, but that Mr Muallem had assured him Damascus was committed to it.

Russia is one of Syria's closest allies and as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has vetoed resolutions condemning Damascus.