A Syrian woman (left) speaks with an Arab League observer attending a mass prayer for people killed in the violence around the country, at the Holy Cross Church, in Damascus, Syria, on Monday. [Muzaffar Salman / Associated Press]

DAMASCUS, Syria - The Arab League on Monday pressed on with its mission to halt 10 months of bloodshed in Syria despite charges it was only serving to cover up the regime's deadly crackdown on protests.

Turkey, which has openly called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, meanwhile, called on the opposition to keep up its resistance through "peaceful means".

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood slammed the league by saying the observer mission in Syria seeks to "cover up the crimes of the Syrian regime by giving it the time and opportunity to kill our people and break their will", according to its spokesman Zuhair Salem.

At a meeting in Cairo on Sunday, an Arab ministerial committee gave its widely criticized observer mission to Syria the green light to carry on and pledged to boost the number of monitors.

The committee "decided to give Arab League observers the necessary time to continue their mission according to the protocol," which sets a one-month term, renewable with the agreement of both sides.

The ministers agreed to increase the number of observers and said they may seek "technical assistance from the United Nations" in the face of unrest that the world body said last month has cost more than 5,000 lives.

The head of the mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, is to give a report to the League on January 19 on Syria's compliance with the peace plan, the ministers said.

A report by the observers discussed at the meeting showed that "killing has been reduced. But even one killing (is too much)", said Sheikh Hamad, whose country has taken a lead role in efforts to resolve the crisis.

Sheikh Hamad said the league hoped to raise the number of observers to 300 "within the next few days" from around 163 now deployed.

A Syrian television channel close to the regime, Dunia, said on Monday that a convoy of Arab monitors had come under fire from a "terrorist group" in the Baba Amro district of Homs, a flashpoint city in central Syria, wounding a driver.

Stepping up its attacks on Doha, the daily Tishrin, the official press in Damascus on Monday accused the Qatari premier of "inciting violence" and working to sabotage the Arab mission.

Sunday's meeting came amid further violence in Syria, in which at least 13 civilians were killed by security forces and 11 soldiers died in clashes with deserters, human rights activists said.

Observers limited

Mostapha Abdullah, a commentator on Syrian issues, said the league needs to improve the mission's operating mechanism. If the pan-Arab group can't coerce the Syrian government to perform all of the items in the protocol that Damascus signed in December, its months-long meditation effort will be doomed to fail, he said.

A research fellow with the Egyptian State Middle East Research Center, who only gave his name as Hossam, believed that the role of the Arab League observers mission in Syria is limited.

AFP-Xinhua