Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani says the Arab League wants to see stability and security
Syria has rejected an Arab League call for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy.
The league, meeting in Cairo, also called on Syria to form a national unity government with the opposition within two months.A government official called the plan "flagrant interference" in Syria's internal affairs, state TV said.
The UN says more than 5,000 people have died as a result of the crackdown on protests since they began last March.
The league called on both sides to end the bloodshed.
The government in Damascus says it is fighting "terrorists and armed gangs" and claims that some 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.
Arab League split "Syria rejects the decisions taken which are outside an Arab working plan, and considers them an attack on its national sovereignty and a flagrant interference in internal affairs," the unnamed Syrian official said.
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The Arab League is essentially asking President Assad to give up power, to just step aside.
Everything he has said since all this began suggests that is something he does not want to do.
Diplomatically speaking there isn't really a game at the moment.
It means that the various initiatives that have been tried over a period of months culminating in the one from the Arab League have got precisely nowhere.
The Arab League is increasingly split, disunited, rancorous about what exactly is to be done about Syria.
Its initiative that seemed to start with quite a lot of unanimity at the end of last year is looking in tatters.
On a government trip to the embattled city of Homs, we've been shown the burnt remains of bodies in a morgue after what soldiers described as an ambush on Sunday morning that killed 11 troops.
Analysis
Everything he has said since all this began suggests that is something he does not want to do.
Diplomatically speaking there isn't really a game at the moment.
It means that the various initiatives that have been tried over a period of months culminating in the one from the Arab League have got precisely nowhere.
The Arab League is increasingly split, disunited, rancorous about what exactly is to be done about Syria.
Its initiative that seemed to start with quite a lot of unanimity at the end of last year is looking in tatters.
On a government trip to the embattled city of Homs, we've been shown the burnt remains of bodies in a morgue after what soldiers described as an ambush on Sunday morning that killed 11 troops.
The official said the Arab League proposals were not in the interests of the Syrian people and would not prevent the country from "advancing its political reforms and bringing security and stability to its people who have shown, during this crisis, their support for national unity as they have rallied around President Assad".
Saudi Arabia said it was pulling out of the league's 165-strong monitoring mission in Syria because Damascus had broken promises on peace initiatives.While the Arab League ministers said they were extending the controversial mission for another month, analysts say the Saudi decision has thrown its longer-term future into serious doubt.
Saudi Arabia is one of the key founders of the league's projects, but the monitors have been criticised for failing to stop the violence.
The Arab League is now increasingly split about what could be done to resolve the Syrian crisis, the BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Syria reports.
With the Syrians rejecting the conditions of the initiative, the Arab League's roadmap is effectively in tatters, our correspondent says.
Meanwhile, violence has continued in Syria, with activists reporting battles between government troops and army defectors in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Sunday.
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Arab League
- Founded: 1945
- Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt
- Key players: Egypt, Saudi Arabia
- Membership: 22 states
- Population: About 300 million
- Area: 5.25 million square miles
At least five people were killed, according to Syria's Local Coordination Committees (LCC). The opposition grouping also said two more people were killed in other Damascus suburbs, three were killed in Idlib and one more each in Homs and Hama.
Activists say almost 1,000 people have been killed since the monitoring mission began in December.'No military intervention' At the Arab League meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal urged the international community to step in and put pressure on Damascus.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani read out a statement agreed by the ministers laying out an ambitious plan of political reform.
It called on President Assad to delegate power to one of his vice-presidents and to engage in proper dialogue with the opposition within two weeks, and form a government of national unity in two months.
Jeremy Bowen met pro-Assad supporters at a demo in Damascus
The league said this should eventually lead to multi-party elections overseen by international observers.
"The new Arab initiative adopted by the foreign ministers envisages the peaceful departure of the Syrian regime," Sheikh Hamad said, in a quote translated by the AFP news agency.
He said the league would seek the support of the UN Security Council for the changes.
But he added: "We're not talking about military intervention."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a Security Council resolution on Syria was long overdue and it had been a mistake for China and Russia to have blocked a previous attempt at one.
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