Damascus has accused Washington of interfering in Arab League affairs as AL foreign ministers are preparing to discuss a preliminary report based on their observers in Syria.

Damascus has accused Washington of interfering in Arab League affairs as AL foreign ministers are preparing to discuss a preliminary report based on their observers in Syria.

The accusation came after Washington announced that Jeffrey Feltman, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, would travel to Cairo for talks with the 22-member Arab bloc on Syria.

Feltman is scheduled to hold discussions with the Arab League on Thursday, just two days before an emergency AL meeting about the unrest in Syria.

"The United States is one of the parties which is seeking to rekindle violence by its mobilization and incitement (to violence)," AFP quoted Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

"The US ... statements are a gross interference in the work of the Arab League and an unjustified attempt to internationalize" the issue of Syria, he said.

The US and a number of Western countries opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule, have already launched a political campaign against the Arab League delegation visiting, saying that they do not trust the mission headed by Sudanese General Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi.

This distrust emerged after Dabi described the situation in the crisis-hit city of Homs as ''reassuring,'' which dismayed several Western countries, who were expecting an anti-Syria report from the AL delegation.

But the Arab League says Gen. Dabi has vital military and diplomatic expertise.

Arab observers arrived in Syria last week to investigate the nine-month unrest in the country and to monitor the implementation of an Arab League peace initiative to end the country's crisis. The monitoring mission is expected to release its report on Saturday.