The Arab League (AL) ministerial committee on Syria is to convene Sunday to review the latest report submitted by the AL monitoring mission in the unrest-stricken country.

The comprehensive report, which is a conclusion of the AL observers' work from Dec. 14, 2011 to Jan. 18, was distributed to Arab countries on Friday for discussions at Sunday's meeting.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman of the opposition Syrian National Council said the group has formally requested the AL to refer the Syrian issue to the UN Security Council.

As the AL mission has failed to halt bloodshed, referring the case to the UN Security Council would change the situation, the spokeswoman said.

AL Deputy Secretary General Ahmed Ben Helli said that the meeting of Arab foreign ministers is to make the right decision based on the report and that it is very likely to expand the monitoring mission in Syria.

The AL mission has been conducting a month-long observation in violence-hit Syrian cities since late December as part of a deal signed between the Syrian government and the AL earlier that month.

The AL-sponsored peace plan is aimed at ending the violence, releasing all detainees and allowing the AL mission to monitor hot-spot cities in Syria.

However, the situation in Syria is showing no signs of improvement. In the latest attack, at least 14 people were killed and 26 others wounded on Saturday in a blast targeting a vehicle transporting prisoners in northwest Syria.

The Syrian government has blamed the incident as well as many others on terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.

Damascus said some 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed since the unrest began last March, while the UN has reported more than 5,000 deaths from the violence.

In parallel with the rising casualties, Syria's economy has also suffered seriously.

According to data released by a Syrian newspaper, the damage caused by attacks in the agricultural sector so far was estimated at 450 million Syrian pounds (7.8 million U.S. dollars).

Agricultural ministry official Omar Hajo said that during the past 10 months, 103 vehicles and 25 establishments have been destroyed by terrorist groups, while six people working in the agricultural field have been killed and five others were kidnapped.

Syrian Oil Minister Sufian Allaw said that in addition to sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Syrian oil industry, attacks targeting oil pipelines and other oil institutions have caused an economic loss of about 2.1 billion Syrian pounds (36.5 million dollars).

At least five pipelines have been targeted since last March, causing a direct material damage of nearly 713 million Syrian pounds (12.4 million dollars) and an indirect economic damage of about 23 billion Syrian pounds (400 million dollars).