Syrian opposition meets in Damascus (AP)

BEIRUT-almost 200 critics of President Bashar Assad met Monday in the Syrian capital for the first time during the three-month uprising against his Government, in a meeting of Government-sanctioned complained that activists would be exploited to give legitimacy to the regime.

The session began with the Syrian national anthem, followed by a minute of silence in honour of the Syrians who were killed in the protests.

The participants, some of them prominent opposition figures, long persecuted by the regime, said that although the meeting was approved by the authorities, do not include representatives of the Government. They said that their aim was to discuss strategies for a peaceful transition to democracy.

But some opposition figures and activists, both inside and outside Syria, rejected the meeting of 190 critics as an opportunity for the Government to convey a false impression is that it allows space for dissent, rather than the crackdown.

The opposition says about 1,400 people have been killed — most of them unarmed demonstrators — during the Government crackdown on months of street protests.

"This meeting will be tapped as a coverup of brutal killings, arrests and torture that takes place on a daily basis," said opposition figure Walid al-Bunni. He told the Associated Press was not invited to the Conference because the authorities had "veto" some names.

"There would have been happier if the organizers of the Conference were free to invite whoever they wanted. As it stands, is not a Conference of opposition, "he told the AP from Damascus.

Group of activists, the coordination of the Union of Syrian revolt, also denounced the Conference, calling it a "cheap ploy" that the Government wants to exploit.

But there were also some extremely important participants, including the lawyer Anwar al-Bunni and well-known writer Michel Kilo, both pro-democracy activists, who spent years as political prisoners. Another participant, writer and activist Patrik Hussein said Syrian authorities were informed of the meeting and had been blocked. There would be no representation of the Government, he said.

The divisions revealed the nature of the Syrian opposition fracture, which has long been silenced, imprisoned or exiled by the autocratic regime in Damascus. Meetings of opposition so far held abroad by exiles living in the West or elsewhere in the Middle East and who do not have the following significant within the country.

Those inside Syria saying change must come from within, but the Rift over tactics Monday Conference reflects differences in approaches.

If the meeting could produce partner for President Assad proposed "national dialogue" it remains to be seen.

In a nationally televised speech on 20 June, Assad said he was forming a Commission to study the constitutional amendments, including one that would pave the way for political parties other than the ruling Baath party. He said that a package of reforms was expected no later than the end of the year.

Two days later, his Foreign Minister, Walid Affairs, Mr Moallem, called for opponents of the regime to enter into political speeches. "Who wants to test our seriousness should come to the national dialogue to be a partner in shaping the future," he said.

But some prominent dissidents rejected the Overture, citing what he said was Assad about reform earlier that has not produced any political change.

The regime denies opposition death toll and said that security forces were killed by "armed thugs" and foreign conspirators behind the unrest. Syria's military spokesman, major general Riad Haddad, said Sunday that 300 soldiers and 47 police officers were killed.

The European Union and United States, condemning the bloody repression, have imposed economic sanctions on Assad and other members of the Damascus leadership.

The Assad regime was also sentenced on Monday in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah, where some 200 Kurds and other Syrian exiled opposition members gathered to call for international military intervention in neighbouring Syria, as NATO's intervention in Libya.

The Kurdish minority in Syria have long faced discrimination at the hands of Arab leadership of the country. Many Kurdish members of the Syrian opposition groups living in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq.

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