UN Security Council opens deliberations on Syria

The UN Security Council began discussing the extension of the UN observer mission in Syria on Thursday, three days before it is due to expire, reported dpa.

"The conditions for an extension of the mission are not there," Germany's deputy UN ambassador Miguel Berger told dpa. But he said a continuing UN presence in Syria was important.

An extension of the mission would likely depend on a reduction of violence in the 17-month-old conflict that has become a civil war.