The news that President Bashar al-Assad would bypass parliament to fasttrack the move was reported in Al-Watan newspaper a day after his cabinet approved a bill to rescind almost 50 years of a state of emergency.
"The presidency of the republic will today enact three decrees on the lifting of the emergency law, the abolition of the State Security Court and the regulation of peaceful demonstrations," the daily quoted an unnamed senior official as saying.
"This package is part of a strategic programme of political reforms aimed at strengthening the democratic process, broadening citizen participation (in politics), consolidating national unity and the security of the homeland and its citizens," Al-Watan added.
Repeal of the emergency law has been a central demand of reformists since protests broke out on March 15.
The emergency law restricts many civil liberties, including public gatherings and freedom of movement, and allows the "arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security."
Around 220 people have been killed by security forces or plainclothes police since the start of the protest movement, according to the rights watchdog Amnesty International.
At least 10 people were reported killed on Tuesday alone in clashes in the central city of Homs, where 20,000 people staged an overnight sit-in protest demanding Assad's ouster.
Despite the cabinet decision on the emergency law, more than 2,000 people defied the authorities and protested against Assad's 11-year regime in the northern coastal city of Banias late on Tuesday, witnesses said.
And only hours later, the Syrian authorities reportedly arrested opposition figure Mahmud Issa in Homs, using powers granted to them under the state of emergency, in force since 1963.
"A patrol of the political security services arrested (regime) opponent Mahmud Issa in Homs after he gave an interview to Al-Jazeera television," said Rami Abdul Rahman of a Syrian human rights group.
In his interview, Issa had called for the authorities to investigate and arrest those behind the killing of General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi, a victim of Tuesday's clashes around Homs.
The official SANA news agency said Tuesday that "armed criminal gangs... came upon General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi, his two children and his nephew, and killed them in cold blood" and "mutilated" their bodies.
Assad's regime has blamed "armed criminal gangs" for deadly violence since pro-reform demonstrations erupted in mid-March across Syria, one of the Middle East's most autocratic countries.
Abdel Rahman said later that a senior security official in Banias, Amjad Abbas, was dismissed and will face justice after appearing in a video showing security forces clashing with protesters on April 12.
But the latest overture by Assad's government has been roundly criticised as failing to go far enough.
Amnesty International, which says the crackdown has cost 26 lives in recent days, cautioned in a statement that the "pledges ring hollow."
The London-based international rights watchdog called on Assad to "back up his pledge to introduce reforms with immediate, concrete action to end the continuing wave of killings of protesters by his security forces."
The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and its branch in Syria, the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies, said the move to lift emergency rule "falls short of significant human rights reforms."
"Evidence in the field also demonstrates the hardening of the response of the security forces to the spreading protests," they said in a statement, adding security forces had killed at least 30 demonstrators in Homs and Latakia, another key protest centre, between Friday and Monday.
Britain and the United States have condemned the use of force and called for even broader reforms, while Russia voiced its "complete support" for the changes that have been announced so far.