The Syrian government said they have begun withdrawing troops from some conflicting areas, said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman of Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria Kofi Annan on Thursday.

"We are in the process of verifying," Fawzi said, adding that the opposition had made it clear that once the government abides by the April 10 deadline, they will also lay down the weapons.

According to the spokesman, all forms of violence should be ceased by all parties in Syria within 48 hours since April 10.

He said Annan will be briefing the UN General Assembly on Thursday afternoon on the latest development on Syria and will visit Teheran on April 11.

A team headed by Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood will arrive in Damascus to discuss the eventual deployment of a UN supervision and monitoring mission, he said.