¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Arab League called on Sunday for the U.N. Security Council to send a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping mission to Syria, and it also decided to scrap its own monitoring team.

¡¡¡¡But Syria¡¯s state news agency said Syria rejected the Arab League decisions, which were taken without a Syrian representative present.

¡¡¡¡Under the final resolution drawn up at a meeting in Cairo, the resolution called for "opening communication channels with the Syrian opposition and providing all forms of political and material support to it." It also urged Syrian opposition groups to unite.

¡¡¡¡The resolution said violence against civilians in Syria had violated international law and that "perpetrators deserve punishment". It reaffirmed a call for Arab states to impose economic sanctions on Syria and to end diplomatic cooperation with Damascus.

¡¡¡¡Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said he was proposing a new joint Arab-U.N. monitoring team to Syria - a call that met with a tepid response from U.N. diplomats.

¡¡¡¡For its part, Tunisia said it would host the first meeting on February. 24th of a "Friends of Syria" contact group made up of Arab and other states.

¡¡¡¡Ministers from Arab states around the gulf - which have been leading the drive against Assad - held a separate meeting earlier.

¡¡¡¡(Source: CNTV.cn)