International envoy Kofi Annan arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday in a bid to salvage his faltering peace plan, while rebels said they had used a tank for the first time in their attacks, dpa reported.
Annan is to discuss his plan, including the UN observers mission, with President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials, a Foreign Ministry source told dpa.
The 300-strong observing team, which has been in the country since April, last month suspended its activities due to the surge in violence.
Tasked by the United Nations and the Arab League earlier this year with defusing the 16-month conflict, Annan admitted at the weekend that his efforts had so far failed to end the unrest.
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde published Saturday, Annan said he had been working for a peaceful and political solution in Syria, but "the evidence shows that we have not succeeded."
Annan's plan for peace in Syria was based on a ceasefire that has never held.
Hours before his arrival in Damascus, the Syrian army started large-scale military exercises, which the state news agency SANA said were meant to simulate "circumstances for repulsing a surprise aggressive assault."
Ground, air and navy troops are participating in the exercises aiming "to test the combat preparedness of the army", according to the report. The agency said that the drills were part of an annual training plan.
Syrian rebels, fighting for al-Assad's ouster, said they had used a tank for the first time in attacking government forces, in what the opposition said was a "very important" shift in tactics in the conflict.
"The brigades of the (rebel) Military Revolutionary Council in the eastern region carried out the attack against an artillery camp with the use of a tank seized earlier from the regular army," said the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At least 30 troops were captured in the raid, according to the London-based organization, which claimed that the rebels had also shot down an unmanned reconnaissance plane in the same area on Saturday.
Fighting has intensified in recent months between the rebels and al-Assad's troops, with the opposition claiming to be in control of large parts of the country.
Meanwhile, at least 40 people were killed mainly in the dissident areas of Daraa in southern Syria and Deir al-Zour in the east, the opposition said.
The deaths included at least 12 soldiers killed in clashes with rebels, said opposition activists.
News from Syria cannot be independently verified, as authorities have barred most foreign media from the restive areas.
In Tokyo, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that opposition forces were growing more effective and that al-Assad's days "are numbered."
"There is no doubt that the opposition is getting more effective in their defence of themselves and in going on the offence against the Syrian and the Syrian government's militias," she told a press conference.
"The sooner there can be an end to the violence and a beginning of a political transition, not only will fewer people die, but there's a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault," she added.
The opposition has said that more than 16,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-government revolt started in March 2011.
Al-Assad's government has said that the country is being targeted by what it calls "armed terrorists" allegedly financed by foreign countries.
Syrian state media also reported that security authorities Sunday thwarted a bid by an "armed terrorist group" to infiltrate into the country from Turkey.
Syrian forces in the northern province of Idlib had clashed with the alleged infiltrators and killed an unspecified number of them, according to the report.
The others fled back into Turkey, said the news agency SANA, calling it the second cross-border infiltration attempt from Turkey in three days.
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