Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told a news conference Monday in Cairo that Syria's military has withdrawn heavy weapons from inside cities and is retreated to the outskirts. But he said security forces have not stopped shooting protesters and the regime's snipers were still deployed on rooftops, despite the Arab League monitors working in the country.

"There are still snipers and gunfire. There must be a total halt to the gunfire," the League chief said.

He said 70 monitors were currently working in six cities. They have achieved the release of 3,484 prisoners in Syria, he said. He also said the Arab League had asked the Syrian opposition to provide it with a list of names of those who remained in custody.

Arabi's comments came amid mounting criticism of the observer mission's failure to halt the bloodshed.

"There must be a complete ceasefire"

Al-Arabi has called for an end to the violence

Many Syrian opposition activists are sceptical that the mission can put real pressure on Assad to halt the violence. They say government forces have killed more than 150 people, the vast majority of them peaceful protesters, since the monitors began their work last Tuesday.

Their purpose is to verify the compliance of President Bashar Assad's regime with an Arab League peace plan aimed at ending the regime's crackdown on anti-government protesters that has claimed thousands of lives since March.

On Sunday, the Arab Parliament, an advisory body of the Arab League, said monitors should be immediately withdrawn from Syria because they failed to halt the government's deadly crackdown on dissent.

The head of the observer mission, Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi, is due to present a report by the end of the week on what the monitors have achieved so far, Arabi said. He added the Arab League may call for a meeting of foreign ministers next week to evaluate the work of the observers and to decide if the number of monitors should be increased.

Author: Dagmar Breitenbach (AP, Reuters, AFP)

Editor: Nicole Goebel