Syrian government agrees to Eid ceasefire

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is pushing "extremely hard" for a ceasefire in Syria, according to a UN spokesperson as violence continues to rage across the country.

Brahimi, has proposed that both sides lay down their arms during Eid al-Adha, a four day religious holiday that begins on Friday.

United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said the UN-Arab League envoy was pressing for a truce and would brief the divided UN Security Council on his efforts on Wednesday.

Brahimi will address the 15-member Security Council by a video link from Cairo, Nesirky told reporters in New York.

"Mr Brahimi is pushing extremely hard as is the secretary general because this is an extremely important moment."

Brahimi, who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is due to meet with the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi for talks on the 20-month conflict.

The envoy wanted "a long-lasting ceasefire that will enable a political process to unfold".

Lakhdar Brahimi, UN envoy, met with Faisal Mekdad, Syrian deputy foreign minister, in Damascus on Tuesday [EPA]

The 15-member Security Council is bitterly divided over the conflict with Western nations pressing for international actions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia and China blocking these moves.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke on Monday of tentative plans top assemble a peacekeeping force if a ceasefire takes hold.

"We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved," Ladsous said.

The two sides to the conflict have given a cautious welcome to Brahimi's proposal but neither has committed itself to the plan for a ceasefire during Eid.

Damascus said that Brahimi's visit which ended on Monday was "successful" although there was no concrete outcome.

The Syrian authorities "are still optimistic," deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad said. "The visit was successful and [Syria's] co-operation with Brahimi is without limits."

Ongoing violence

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the unrelenting violence is dimming hopes for Eid ceasefire.

"Neither the rebels nor the regime appear to want a ceasefire, and the daily death toll continues to exceed 100," Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory director, told the AFP news agency.

The Observatory said 112 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, including ten people who died when a warplane bombed a bread queue in the northern city of Aleppo.

On the battlefront, warplanes raided an eastern district of Aleppo city, the conflict's focal point since mid-July, killing a child and nine other people, said the Observatory.

"Ten people, including a child, were killed by a military air strike near a bakery in the Masaken Hanano neighbourhood of Aleppo," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"It is always at the bread lines" where people get killed, he added.

A resident confirmed the aerial attack, saying civilians were killed "as they were standing in line to get bread from the Zahra bakery".

The Observatory also reported fighting in Damascus province, and said five children and three women were among 12 people killed in the district of Moadamiya by shelling that targeted a residential area.

Violence also gripped the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and Deraa in the south and warplanes pounded the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan, which rebels seized on October 9.

Weapons controversy

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels have acquired portable surface-to-air missiles, including US-made Stingers, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia's senior general as saying on Wednesday.

Russia has laid most of the blame for continuing violence on armed government foes it says are aided by encouragement and arms from abroad.

Russia's military has learned "that militants fighting Syrian government forces have portable missile launchers of
various states, including American-made Stingers," Interfax quoted general staff chief Nikolai Makarov as saying.

"Who supplied them must still be determined," he said.

NBC News reported in late July that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as MANPADs. A political adviser to the Free Syrian Army denied it.

In contrast to the Libya crisis, the West has shown little appetite to arm the Syrian rebels, worried that weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic militants.

Russia sold the government in Syria $1 bn worth of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo in the UN Security Council because of what it says are concerns rebels fighting Assad's government would get weapons illegally anyway.