Arab monitors visited on Tuesday Homs, Syria’s third largest city that has witnessed fierce clashes between security forces and militants.

Arab monitors visited on Tuesday Homs, Syria’s third largest city that has witnessed fierce clashes between security forces and militants.

The Arab League mission met Homs governor Ghassan Abdel Al, Syria's Dunia television reported.

The mission also due to travel to the central city of Hama and Idlib in the northwest, close to the border with Turkey, the television added, without giving a timetable.

The head of the mission, Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said that the authorities were so far affording every assistance.
"Till now, they have been very cooperative," Dabi told AFP.

Last week Syria signed with the Arab League a protocol in which it permitted to the observers to examine the situation in the country.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said the observer "mission has freedom of movement in line with the protocol".
Under that deal, the observers are to be banned only from sensitive military installations.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for a halt to violence and the release of detainees.

For his part, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate his government's contention that armed terrorists are behind the violence.