Syria to lift emergency law, regulate demos

DAMASCUS: Syria's government approved on Tuesday a bill to rescind a decades-old emergency law and agreed to abolish the state security court, after weeks of pro-democracy protests and hundreds of deaths.

The cabinet also approved a bill regulating demonstrations, the state news agency SANA reported, only hours after the interior minister imposed a total ban on political gatherings and after security forces fired on protesters in the city of Homs, killing four.

The ongoing repression prompted the United States to call on Syria to cease violence against protesters. More than 2,000 people defied the authorities and protested against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the northern coastal city of Banias, witnesses said.

The bills approved on Tuesday will now go before parliament, which is not due to meet before May 2.

Earlier, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told Syrians "to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever." With protests intensifying and spreading across the country, Assad delivered a speech to his new cabinet on Saturday and promised an end to the draconian emergency law, in force since 1963.

The 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."

Repeal of the emergency law has been a central demand of reformists since protests began on March 15.

At least 200 people have been killed by security forces or plain-clothes police since the start of the protest movement, Amnesty International says.

At least 10 people were reported killed on Tuesday in clashes in the central city of Homs, where some 20,000 people staged an overnight sit-in protest demanding Assad's ouster.(AFP)