The Arab League has announced that it plans to bring together Syria's government and opposition groups to seek ways to end the violence in the country, Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister, said.

Defying calls for Syria's suspension from the regional body over a worsening army crackdown on political unrest, the league decided on Sunday to form a committee to forge dialogue between the government and opposition.

"We will call all of the parties of the opposition and government to hold a dialogue within 15 days," the League's Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said after an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The league had met to discuss whether to suspend Syria, increasing pressure on the Assad government to end its security crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Sunday's meeting was requested by several Gulf Arab countries, around six months after initially peaceful protests calling for reform and the end of Assad's rule first began to sweep the country.

Many Gulf States have pulled their ambassadors out of Syria in protest against President Assad's crackdown, which the UN says has killed more than 3,000 people.

The UN Security Council has not condemned the violence, thanks to vetoes from Russia and China.

India, Brazil and South Africa, which hold non-permanent Security Council seats and are considered a bloc of influential developing countries, abstained from the vote, prompting criticism from Human Rights Watch.

The three countries are due to hold a forum in Pretoria, South Africa, on Monday, and the organization urged them to use the opportunity to demand Assad's government end attacks.

"[Their] leaders shouldn't sit by and watch as Syria implodes," Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.

'Protesters killed'

Sunday's developments came on a day activists said nine people were killed in three seperate hubs of protest.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that four civilians died in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire on a protest outside the home of a detained activist, Mansur al-Arassi.

Two other people were killed outside a mosque in the Khaldiyeh sector of the city by attackers who opened fire from a vehicle, the rights group said. It said 39 people were wounded in the two incidents.

In the Damascus region, one person was killed in the town of Zabadani, where security forces earlier arrested 25 people, including three young women, the group said.

It said the death occurred when security forces fired on people after they left a mosque and began protesting in the streets calling for the release of detainees.

In Idlib province of northwest Syria, two people were killed in Khan Sheikhun near the border with Turkey when security forces fired live rounds to break up a protest, the group said.

Earlier in the day, security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for an activist in the oil-rich east, it said. "Syrian security forces in Deir Ezzor fired live bullets at a funeral procession for Ziad al-Obeidi."

Obeidi, 42, was killed by security forces who were hunting for him in Deir Ezzor province. He had gone into hiding in August during military operations in the area.

Assad has alleged that foreign powers are behind the unrest in his country, which has divided opinion in the Middle East.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah has offered tacit support for Assad and continued to meet with him, while Iran has also backed Assad's government, which draws strong support from the country's Alawite denomination of Islam, to which the Assad family belongs.

The opposition to Assad is supported by the country's Muslim Brotherhood, which is Sunni and endured brutal repression under Assad's father, Hafez, a former president.

PHOTO CAPTION

Arab League's permanent representatives attend a meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo October 13, 2011.

Al Jazeera