New York:
UN leader Ban Ki-moon has decided the deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors in Syria can start next week even though the UN believes the crisis has now hit a "pivotal" moment, officials said on Monday.
President Bashar al-Assad's compliance with a cessation of hostilities "remains incomplete," Ban's political chief told the UN Security Council.
"But it is our hope that the deployment of observers will help to stop the killing and consolidate the calm," UN Assistant Secretary General Lynn Pascoe said. "We are at a pivotal moment in Syria."
A UN Security Council resolution passed on Saturday gave Ban the duty to make an "assessment" whether it was safe for the 300 unarmed monitors to go.
"The decision has been taken" and the monitors will arrive in "phases" starting next week, deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey told AFP.
The deployment of 30 advanced monitors "is expected to be completed by the end of April and the expeditious deployment of the rest of the military observers is a priority."
The UN Supervision Mission to Syria (UNSMIS) will go for an initial 90 days but the United States has already warned that it may not allow extension of that mission.
The Security Council decided to approve the full UNSMIS force even though Assad has not withdrawn troops and heavy weapons from Syrian cities in line with a six-point peace plan agreed with UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
"The regime's long track record is one of dependable deceit and deception, thus this Syrian mission is unusually risky and dangerous," US ambassador Susan Rice told the Security Council.
The United States, Britain and France have all said they will call for sanctions against Assad if the observer mission fails.
Russia, Syria's last main ally, has insisted however that the Annan plan be given a full opportunity. Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has criticized the "threats and negative predictions" made by Western nations about Syria.
"Conditions are risky, but we believe the presence of UN observers will change the political dynamics on the ground," Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Mr Annan, told AFP of the decision to start sending the monitors.
Mr Annan has made repeated calls for the Syrian government to pull back troops and heavy weapons in line with the peace plan so that political talks can start.
But Pascoe told the Security Council that Syria's action on other points were also lacking.
"Measures taken by the Syrian authorities to date, including on the release of arbitrarily detained persons and the respect of the right to demonstrate peacefully, are clearly insufficient."
Mr Annan is to brief the Security Council for the third time at 1900 GMT on Tuesday on his efforts to mediate in the Syrian crisis. Annan will speak to the closed meeting by video-conference, diplomats said.
The UN Security Council voted a resolution on April 14 to let the first 30 monitors go to Syria, where the UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed since an uprising against Assad started in March last year. A second resolution passed on Saturday increased the number of unarmed monitors to 300.