The Arab League (AL) will meet Sunday to discuss a proposed joint Arab-UN mission to help ease the 11-month turmoil in Syria.

The new observer mission, said AL Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby, would be more mature and have a different mandate and better equipment than its previous mission, which was pulled out on Jan. 28.

AL Deputy Secretary General Ahmed Bin Helli said AL ministers were likely to discuss the latest developments in Syria and Arab diplomatic and political moves at the meeting, in addition to UN involvement in the observer plan.

All Arab countries had the right to participate in the observer mission and 13 of the 22 Arab countries had joined, Helli said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday: "We stand ready to assist in anyway that will contribute towards improvement on the ground and to the overall situation."

After the United States, Britain, France and Italy recalled their ambassadors from Syria, the German Foreign Ministry expelled four Syrian diplomats on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the Libyan Foreign Ministry announced its decision to expel Syria's charge d'affaires and his staff and demand all Syrian diplomats leave Libya within the next 72 hours.

Meanwhile, violence in hot-spot cities continues with no immediate end in sight.

Syria's private media reported Thursday that armed groups took over several mosques in Homs and fired on law-enforcement forces from the minarets, killing more than 100 people.

Since the unrest began last March, more than 5,400 deaths have been reported by the UN, while the Syrian government put the death toll at more than 2,000.

RUSSIA "CAN'T REMAIN INDIFFERENT"

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Thursday Russia would do its best to avert military intervention in Syria.

The situation in Syria was worsening and Russia "can't remain indifferent," Antonov said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on members of the UN Security Council to avoid hasty unilateral actions on Syria during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday.

After a visit to Syria earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was necessary for the country's government and opposition to start a national dialogue.

However, the White House on Wednesday rejected Russia's call for negotiations between the confronting parties in Syria, saying the opportunity was no longer available.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said on Thursday that China, the United States and other countries could still cooperate on the Syria issue, although they held different stances on the draft UN Security Council resolution, which Russia and China vetoed last Saturday.

Cui said China believed that, in international relations, one should neither rashly use force or the threat of force, nor use external intervention to achieve regime change in other countries.

In regard to the current violence in Syria, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Thursday China had no private interests regarding Syria and had been working to encourage peaceful negotiations.

China hoped to continue to improve its communication with relevant parties in Syria and would make unremitting efforts to properly and peacefully solve the crisis, Liu said.