Arab League economy ministers agreed Saturday to impose a list of sanctions on Syria after Damascus ignored a deadline to end a violent crackdown on opposition, while 24 people died in the country's intensifying violence, dpa reported.
The ministers, gathered in Cairo for a crisis meeting on Syria, said they would list names of the senior Syrian officials to be barred from travelling through Arab airports.
"Trade exchanges between Arab governments and the Syrian government are to be halted, except for those related to the strategic goods needed by the Syrian people," the ministers said in a statement.
As part of a package of sanctions, Arab governments are to stop dealing with Syria's central bank and to suspend flights by Syria's state-owned airline, except for those carrying goods.
The Arab ministers demanded that their countries freeze assets owned by Syrian officials and withdraw Arab investments in Syria.
According to the statement, the sanctions were designed to avoid harming the Syrian people.
The Arab League foreign ministers were to continue meeting Sunday in Cairo for further talks on Syria. The meeting will also be attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The Arab League had set Friday as a deadline for Damascus to endorse a plan to allow Arab monitors into the country, pull the Syrian Army from civilian areas and open dialogue with the opposition.
Syria ignored the deadline, the second set by the regional body this month.
The Arab economy ministers proposed on Saturday a committee be created to be tasked with specifying the goods to be excluded from the ban.
They said the interests of Syria's neighbours should be heeded when the sanctions are enforced. Syria depends on its Arab neighbours for half of its exports and a quarter of its imports.
Earlier Saturday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, whose country has close economic ties with Syria, was quoted as saying it was "not possible" to impose such sanctions. Lebanon has already made clear that it will not vote for any economic sanctions on its neighbour.
The state-run Syrian News Agency SANA said that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in a letter addressed to the Arab League Saturday as they were meeting in Cairo, accused the Arab organization of trying to "internationalize" the crisis in Syria.
On Thursday, Arab diplomats said the league would ask the United Nations to contribute observers to an international mission that Syria is still refusing to allow into the country.
Moallem complained of contradictions in the Arab League position and said that on one hand there were "talks of respecting Syrian sovereignty and avoiding foreign intervention, while on the other there are calls on the UN secretary-general to intervene."
Moallem said he was "confident that the all Arab countries are against a foreign intervention into the affairs of Arab countries and that we hope that the Arab League will make an announcement confirming that position."
The 22-country organization suspended Syria's membership this month after al-Assad's regime ignored demands to end an eight-month crackdown on protests, in which more than 3,500 people have been killed.
At least 24 civilians and members of the security forces were killed in attacks Saturday in Syria.
Eight soldiers and members of the security forces were killed and 40 others were wounded when army defectors carried out an attack against their convoy in Idlib in north-west Syria, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"A group of deserters attacked a squad of soldiers and security agents in a convoy of seven vehicles, on the road from Ghadka to Maaret an-Naaman," the watchdog said.
The Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors, said in a statement it was behind the attack.
Elsewhere, 16 civilians, including three children ages 9 and 10, were shot dead by security forces in the restive province in Homs and and Deir al-Zour.
Earlier, SANA reported that 22 soldiers and security personnel were killed in clashes with "armed terrorist groups."
Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified because foreign journalists and human rights groups have been barred from the country.