Ban proposes force of up to 300 unarmed truce monitors

��� UNITED NATIONS, Apr 19: Syria has not fully complied with a UN-backed peace plan for the country and has yet to send a �clear signal� about its commitment to ending more than a year of violence, the UN chief told the Security Council in a letter obtained by Reuters.At the same time, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that there may be a chance for progress on ending a 13-month conflict that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war.Ban yesterday proposed an expanded UN monitoring mission, which, if approved by the council, would be comprised of �an initial deployment� of up to 300 unarmed observers to supervise a fragile week-old ceasefire between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters seeking to oust him.But he cautioned that the fighting had not ended.�The Syrian Government has yet to fully implement its initial obligations regarding the actions and deployments of its troops, or to return them to barracks,� he said in a preliminary assessment of Syria�s compliance with a resolution on Syria the Security Council passed on� Saturday.�Violent incidents and reports of casualties have escalated again in recent days, with reports of shelling of civilian areas and abuses by Government forces,� he said. �The Government reports violent actions by armed� groups.��The cessation of armed violence is therefore clearly incomplete,� Ban said, adding that both sides say they are committed to ending the �violence in all its forms.�Diplomats on the 15-nation council say Ban�s report and a briefing they will receive from U.N .-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan�s deputy, Jean-Marie Guehenno, on Thursday at 9:00 am will be crucial in determining whether the conditions are right for deploying a larger monitoring mission to Syria.US and European diplomats on the council have suggested that Syria�s lack of full compliance with its obligations to end the violence might make it difficult for them to support a new resolution that would be needed to deploy an expanded observer mission. (agencies)