Syria agrees to receive an Arab League committee next week

Syria has agreed to receive an Arab league committee assigned last week to work on establishing a dialogue between the government and the opposition to end violence, Lebanese media reported late Thursday.

According to the Lebanese radio station "Voice of Lebanon" the Syrian leadership was contacted by the Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi and the response "was positive", dpa reported.

The radio said that the Arab league delegation is due to visit the Syrian capital and meet with Syrian officials next Wednesday.

Syria has been gripped by an uprising since mid-March calling for President Bashar al-Assad?s ouster.

After an urgent meeting of its foreign ministers last week, the Arab League said that it had decided to make contact with the Damascus government and Syrian opposition groups with the aim of launching "national dialogue within the seat of the Arab League and under its guidance within 15 days."

The radio station said the committee will be headed by Qatar and include the foreign ministers of Egypt, Oman, Algeria and Sudan, alongside the Arab League's envoy Nabil al-Arabi.

Earlier, al-Arabi in an interview published in a Lebanese daily said the deteriorating situation in Syria requires the intervention of his organization.

"Syria is facing an unacceptable situation characterized by killing, oppression and violence ... the situation in Syria requires an intervention and the League has to play a role in this," al-Arabi told An Nahar newspaper.

The Syrian clampdown on peaceful protesters has drawn wide condemnations from Western and Arab countries, including the Arab League.

More than 3,000 people, including at least 187 children, have been killed in the Syrian government?s crackdown on pro-democracy protests since they erupted in mid-March, according to the United Nations.