Syria yesterday rejected an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy and clear the way for a national unity government.

As the EU slapped new sanctions on Damascus, an official said: “Syria rejects the decisions taken which are outside an Arab working plan.

“It considers them an attack on its national sovereignty and a flagrant interference in in-ternal affairs.”

The Arab League has asked the United Nations to support a new plan for ending the bloodshed in Syria that would see President Assad transferring power to his deputy and a government of national unity formed within two months.

The plan was detailed by Qatar’s premier, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, at the end of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to determine the fate of an Arab League observer mission in Syria.

“If this initiative is not put in place by Damascus, we will go to the UN Security Council, where the decisions will be taken,” Sheikh Hamad warned.

The observer mission, deployed since December 26 to oversee an Arab League peace plan, has been widely criticised for its failure to stem the government’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

In Cairo, Saudi Arabia said it was pulling out its observers from the mission because the Syrian government had not respected any of the clauses of an Arab peace plan.

The League agreed, however, to extend the mission andboost the force from its current number of about 165 observers on the ground, according to the final statement of Arab foreign ministers.

Yesterday, EU foreign ministers voiced support for the Arab monitors and adopted more sanctions against Syria, adding security officials on a new list of people and firms hit by a travel ban and asset freeze.

“We call again for the violence to stop for the Arab League monitors to be able to do their job unheeded,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, whose bloc is already enforcing an arms embargo and oil imports ban on Syria.

Arab foreign ministers urged the Syrian government and opposition factions to engage in a serious dialogue to be able to achieve the formation of a unity government.

The new government’s mission would be to implement the Arab League plan and to prepare free and fair legislative and presidential elections under both Arab and international supervision. It would also prepare the election of a constituent assembly within three months and a new constit-ution which would be put to a referendum.

The Qatari premier said the new plan envisaged the “peaceful departure of the Syrian regime,” adding the plan “resembles the one on Yemen” that has led to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ouster.

Syrian state media pinned what it viewed as divisions within Arab ranks on Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a key figure in efforts to pile up the pressure on Damascus.

“All his decisions are driven by hatred and vengeance, not only against Syria and Syrians but against all Arabs,” charged Ath-Thawra newspaper.

The Syrian National Council, the country’s largest opposition group and which lobbied in Cairo for UN intervention, welcomed the League’s statement of its intention to seek UN support.

But SNC chief Burhan Ghaliun insisted “any transition in Syria should be preceded with the announcement of Assad’s departure.”

Another opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees, however, said the plan was “unattainable” and would only allow the regime more time to pursue a deadly crackdown.

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood was less dismissive.

“We see in this initiative elements that reflect seriousness and deserve careful study in the context of achieving our people’s demands for justice, freedom, and life with dignity,” it said.

International pressure has been steadily growing on President Assad’s regime, as more than 5,400 people have been killed since anti-government protests broke out last March, according to UN figures.

A report delivered on Sunday by the chief of the Arab League’s monitoring mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, blamed both sides for the bloodshed, according to an Arab diplo-matic source.

On the ground, funerals in Douma near Syria’s capital drew more than 150,000 people, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding 10 people were killed across the country.