Damascus: Syria has responded "positively" to a proposed Arab League plan aimed at ending eight months of violence, and expects the agreement to be signed soon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Al Makdesi said on Monday.
He was speaking after the expiry of the latest deadline to agree an Arab League initiative aimed at halting President Bashar Al Assad's crackdown on protests in which the United Nations says more than 4,000 people have been killed.
Damascus has complained that the initiative, which includes a plan to allow observers into the country to monitor its implementation, would infringe its national sovereignty.
But it says it has been seeking clarification on the proposal and had not rejected it out of hand.
"The protocol is intended to be signed soon," Al Makdesi told journalists in Damascus. "The Syrian government has responded positively to the draft protocol."
"I am optimistic, although I await the Arab League response first," he said.
Last month the Arab League announced unprecedented economic sanctions against Damascus for failing to halt the violence and agree to its initiative, but it has extended the deadline for signing the agreement several times since then.