UN humanitarian chief enters Syria's battered Baba Amr

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos entered the battered Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr on Wednesday along with a team from the Syrian Red Crescent, as efforts continued apace to bring an end to a year of deadly violence in the country.

"Madame Amos entered with the team of volunteers from the Syrian Red Crescent, which stayed 45 minutes in the district," said a spokesman from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Red Crescent and the ICRC had been seeking since Friday to enter Baba Amr -- the target of a month-long bombing campaign to oust rebel fighters -- but the government repeatedly barred them from evacuating wounded civilians and delivering desperately needed supplies.

Saleh Dabbakeh, an ICRC spokesman in Damascus, said that Amos and the Syrian Red Crescent team accompanying her "discovered what we already knew, which is that the residents of the area had fled during the fighting."

He said the ICRC had for two weeks been providing humanitarian aid in several regions to displaced residents of Baba Amr.

ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger last week called the government's decision to deny aid workers access to the district "unacceptable," but the authorities said the move was based on safety concerns over mines and unexploded bombs.

However, the opposition charged that the delay was aimed at allowing time for the regime's "crimes" to be covered up.

The green light from Damascus came after Amos held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, in which he pledged Syria's cooperation with her mission to secure aid for battered protest cities.

Amos flew in for a two-day visit after international outcry over President Bashar al-Assad's previous refusal to let her in.

She is to be followed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday.

The UN former chief was in Cairo on Wednesday ahead of his first visit since his appointment as international envoy for Syria.

Muallem "underlined Syria's commitment to cooperate with the delegation within the framework of the respect, sovereignty and independence of Syria," state SANA news agency said

It quoted Muallem as saying Syria was doing its best to provide food and medical assistance to its citizens despite "the burden it faces as a result of unfair sanctions imposed by some Western and Arab nations which are affecting the population."

Amos's arrival coincided with a report by the Syrian National Council (SNC), the main opposition grouping, that army reinforcements were on their way to Idlib province in the northwest, a stronghold of Turkey-based Free Syrian Army rebels.

"The SNC has noted 42 tanks and 131 troop carriers leaving Latakia in the direction of the town of Saraqeb," in Idlib, "as well as military columns heading for the town of Idlib," the group said in a statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven people were killed in violence across the country on Wednesday, five of them in Idlib province.

One civilian was killed by snipers in the village Al-Atareb, in the northern province of Aleppo, and a child died from gunshots in Al-Khalidiyeh, a neighbourhood in central Homs.

The SNC called on the international community, the Arab League and international NGOs to "act urgently and at all levels, to avoid a repeat of the massacre at Baba Amr, where hundreds of martyrs fell."

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the overall death toll since last March has now reached almost 8,500, with civilians accounting for three-quarters of those killed and the rest made up of soldiers, security service agents and rebels.

Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallim said on Wednesday that Damascus was ready to cooperate with a Chinese initiative to end the bloodshed and begin dialogue between the regime and the opposition.

After meeting Chinese envoy Li Huaxin, Beijing's former ambassador to Damascus, Muallem said Syria welcomed a six-point peace plan and was "ready to cooperate" with the plan aimed at "halting the violence," SANA reported.

Damascus was also ready to cooperate with the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, the minister added.

The Chinese initiative, unveiled by Beijing on Sunday, calls for an immediate end to the violence and for dialogue between the regime and the opposition.

The SNC has previously ruled out dialogue while Assad remains in power.

Beijing's proposal rejects foreign interference or "external action for regime change" in Syria but supports the role of the UN Security Council "in strict accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN charter."

Russia, which like China has been criticised for blocking Security Council action on the crisis, urged its ally Damascus and the rebels to "immediately" halt violence and assist Amos's mission.

The Russian foreign ministry said it received Syria's ambassador to Moscow at his own request and made clear that "violence must end immediately, no matter where it comes from."

Incoming president Vladimir Putin rejected the idea of Russia offering Assad asylum as a way of helping put an end to the bloodshed.

"We are not even discussing this question," news agencies quoted Putin as saying.