The Syrian government has continued its crackdown on protesters despite action by the Arab LeagueForeign ministers from the Arab League are due to discuss in Cairo the progress of their mission in Syria and to discuss whether to ask for UN help.
An observer mission sent by the League to assess a peace plan has been criticised as toothless, as bloodshed continues despite its presence.
An unconfirmed report says that 11 Syrian soldiers died in fighting in Deraa province on Sunday.
Other clashes between soldiers and army deserters were said to be under way.
Nearly 100 people are said to have been killed in three days alone - although the reports are difficult to verify with most foreign media barred from working in Syria
- According to the Syrian opposition Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), at least 27 people died around the country on Saturday - eight in Homs, 13 in Idlib, five in the suburbs of Damascus and one in Hama
- Local opposition groups said 35 people had been killed in anti-government protests after Friday prayers
- At least 26 people died in a bomb attack in Damascus on Friday, some of them members of the security forces
The UN says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed since protests against President Bashar al-Assad began 10 months ago.
The Arab League mission has been heavily criticised by the Syrian opposition for failing to stop, or even clearly condemn, the ongoing violence, the BBC's Jon Leyne reports from Cairo.
But senior officials from the League have already said that there is no question of the mission being withdrawn and, instead, there is talk of strengthening it, our correspondent says.
'Machine-gun exchanges'The Arab League observers have been in Syria since late December to monitor compliance with a peace plan under which the government promised to withdraw the military from the streets and cease its use of force against civilians.
The ministers meeting in Cairo are expected to examine a proposal by Qatar for UN human rights experts to be invited to assist their work, in order to judge whether the Syrian authorities are honouring their pledge.
They will also look at how the observers can operate more independently of Syrian authorities. Currently they are required to be escorted by members of the Syrian security officials.
Critics say Mr Assad is using the monitors' presence as a political cover and that attacks continue.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 11 soldiers were killed and at least 20 injured in fighting with deserters in Deraa.
A further nine defected to the deserters' side, it added, in a report which could not be independently verified.
Heavy machine-gun exchanges between troops and deserters were also reported in the Deraa town of Dael, with no immediate reports of casualties.
In another development, a Russian naval flotilla aircraft led by an aircraft carrier docked in the Syrian port of Tartus.
The carrier group is due to spend six days in Tartus, where Russia has a naval base dating back to Soviet times.
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