Syrian troops fight rebels near Damascus (Reuters)

HARASTA, Syria (Reuters) ? Syrian troops battled rebels in a town just north of Damascus on Thursday and a provincial governor spoke of negotiating local ceasefires as a 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad crept close to the capital.

A Syrian officer told Reuters clashes had been under way in Douma since the morning. Security forces were searching houses for arms and wanted suspects. Reporters were shown home-made grenades among other seized weapons.

The officer was speaking in the tense suburb of Harasta nearby, where troops were deployed in strength.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had detained 200 people in Douma, a hotbed of protests and armed rebellion against Assad.

Gunfire was close enough to be heard from central Damascus during the night.

"Many of them (in the opposition) have been misled. They will eventually come back to the right way," Hussein Makhlouf, governor of Damascus countryside, told Arab League monitors before they headed for some of the capital's troubled suburbs.

"We have started a dialogue with them, including some armed groups that are controlling positions there," Makhlouf said.

He told the observers that the authorities were using "the same approach as in Zabadani, so the same scenario will happen."

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For graphic on Arab League http://link.reuters.com/pev65s

For graphic on Syria toll http://link.reuters.com/xav85s

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This month the military withdrew armored vehicles encircling the rebel-held town of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, after negotiating a truce with its defenders.

Arab observers stopped at an entrance to the Damascus suburb of Irbin, where a dozen soldiers stood guard. Beyond them a crowd of about 100 anti-Assad protesters shouted "Allahu akbar (God is great)." The troops showed the monitors the body of a soldier and another person they said had been killed in the morning.

The Arab observers soon drove away from the scene without going into the township.

MONITORS RESUME WORK

The monitors, now without 55 Gulf Arab colleagues withdrawn by their governments this week in protest at continued bloodshed, were resuming work after a one-week gap during which the Arab League prolonged their mission by another month.

One monitor said he was confused about the extension. "The report has been written and the (League) decisions have been taken, so another month to do what? We are not sure," he said.

Syrian opposition groups have accused the observer mission, which deployed on December 26, of giving Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels in which more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, by a U.N. tally.

The Arab League called on Sunday for Assad to quit as part of a transition plan for which it is seeking U.N. support.

Western and Arab diplomats are working on a draft Security Council resolution on Syria. Russia said it would continue to promote its own text, but did not rule out a compromise.

"For now ... Russia has its own draft and will actively promote it within the framework of the Security Council," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Russia, one of Syria's few remaining allies along with Iran, has rejected sanctions or military action against Assad.

The Security Council could vote as early as next week on a Western-Arab draft resolution, council diplomats said.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby urged Damascus to end military operations against "defenseless civilians." In a statement, he voiced concern about "the continued killing and violence in Syria that has claimed more innocent victims."

In recent months, an insurgency by army deserters and other rebels has increasingly eclipsed peaceful protests against more than four decades of rule by the Assad family.

Activists said the army deployment and clashes in townships around Damascus were a response to insurgents' growing strength.

"The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has almost complete control of some areas of the Damascus countryside and some control in Douma and Harasta," an activist who gave his name as Hussein told Reuters by telephone from Harasta.

Other activists in Douma, Harasta and Irbin said security forces had gathered in their towns after rebels retreated because they could not fight pitched battles with the army.

"Assad's army has armored vehicles and anti-aircraft guns while we only have rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)," said an FSA fighter who calls himself Abu Thaer.

France voiced concern over the situation in Hama where it said Syrian security forces had launched a major offensive.

"Facing the bloody and relentless repression of the Syrian regime, it's vital that the international community faces its responsibilities by adopting a Security Council resolution that condemns the violence committed by the Damascus government against its people," a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The U.S. State Department's top human rights official said Washington was keen to work with the Arab League to end the bloodshed in Syria and he called for Assad to go.

"We are desirous of working in partnership with them and there is certainly a hope and expectation that we can proceed to the Security Council soon for the issue to be raised," Michael Posner told reporters in Cairo.

The revolt in Syria was inspired by other uprisings that have toppled three autocratic Arab leaders over the past year and the bloodshed has battered Assad's standing in the world.

The Arab League has suspended Syria and called for Assad to hand over to his deputy, pending the formation of an unity government, constitutional and security reform, and elections.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Tom Perry in Cairo; Writing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_syria

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