UNITED NATIONS: Western powers on the UN Security Council are poised to present a draft resolution on Syria seeking to increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, envoys said Wednesday.
The United States, Britain and France were waiting to hear a briefing from UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan later in the day before putting their proposals to the 15-nation council.
The mandate of the UN mission in Syria, UNSMIS, ends on July 20 and Russia, Assad's main international ally, has already circulated a draft resolution which simply rolls over the mission.
Annan spoke to council envoys by videoconference from Geneva on Wednesday about his latest efforts to secure a halt to the violence in Syria which activists say has left more than 17,000 dead.
Annan was to give the council details of his latest encounter in Damascus with Assad on Monday.
A meeting of international foreign ministers in Geneva last week agreed there must be a political transition in Syria, but the ministers made no explicit call for Assad to quit.
Western governments have said however there can be no role for Assad in a unity government.
After meeting Assad, Annan said the Syrian leader had a new political approach to ending the crisis that he would put to the rebels.
Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said that the western powers would imminently distribute a draft resolution.
"Of course we have a number of drafts ready but we will consider exactly which text to circulate in the light of Mr Annan's briefing," Lyall Grant told reporters.
Other diplomats said the western resolution would be sent to other council members on Wednesday or Thursday and that it would seek to get implementation of Annan's six-point peace plan made mandatory under the UN Charter.
This would at least open up an avenue for possible sanctions later.
Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions which just hinted at sanctions.
Western capitals have set out their opposition to the Russian proposal.
"It is clear that the Russian resolution is below the expectations of most of the international community," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris.
Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig said it was "a mistake to focus just on UNSMIS in isolation. We want compliance with the decisions of the Security Council and we want to see the stop of heavy weapons."
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