An Arab League observers team was due in Syria Thursday to inspect implementation of a plan signed few days ago, aimed at ending nine months of unrest.

An Arab League observers team was due in Syria Thursday to inspect implementation of a plan signed few days ago, aimed at ending nine months of unrest.

The advance team was expected to leave for Damascus from Cairo, where the League has its headquarters, at around 1100 GMT.

The bloc's secretary general Nabil al-Arabi told a meeting of Arab electricity ministers on Thursday morning that he had to leave to speak to team members before their departure.

The advance team, led by Arabi aide Samir Seif al-Yazal, consists of a dozen of security, legal and administrative staff from the League's secretariat who will make the logistical preparations for the arrival on Sunday of an initial 30 observers, officials said.

The mission's leader, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said its numbers would swell to a total of between 150 and 200 in the following days.

According to the protocol governing the mission, they will number an "amount reasonable to accomplish the mission" and will include "Arab civilian and military experts chosen by Arab countries or organizations."

Their task will consist of "monitoring the cessation of violence on all sides, and to ensure the release of detainees arrested in connection with the current crisis," according to the text of the protocol.

Observers "should be free to communicate with anyone, in coordination with the Syrian government. They must also ensure that armed appearances have disappeared from the cities, and to ensure that the government allows the media to enter the country."