* Western, Arab powers demand Assad let in relief supplies
* Aim is to make end of Assad rule "look
inevitable"-diplomat
* Syrian opposition says ferrying arms to rebels
* Russia, China prevented tough U.N. Security Council action
TUNIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Western and Arab nations
will demand on Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad halt
his 11-month-old crackdown on the opposition and allow aid to be
delivered to desperate civilians trapped by the escalating
violence.
With little sign of any international resolve to intervene
to end the violence, Syria's opposition appeared to be taking
matters into its own hands, saying it was supplying weapons to
rebels inside Syria while Western and other states turned a
blind eye.
Foreign ministers from more than 50 countries were in the
Tunisian capital for the "Friends of Syria" inaugural meeting,
against the backdrop of a surge in government attacks on the
city of Homs and mounting world outrage over violence that has
killed thousands of people during the uprising.
Delegates said that with efforts to end the violence through
the United Nations blocked by Russia and China, the aim of the
meeting was to challenge Assad to let in aid and to lay the
groundwork for an eventual handover of power in Syria.
"It is very important that the first contact group is taking
place today because it sends a message to the Syrian people that
we support them in their struggle for freedom and that the
international community is clearly committed against the
repression and violence of Assad's regime," German Foreign
Minister Guido Westerwelle told Reuters in Tunis.
"We have three goals here. The first one is to end the
violence, second humanitarian support and third peaceful
political transition therefore President Assad has to step
aside," he said.
A diplomat attending the conference said the objective was
to persuade groups not yet convinced of the need for Assad to
step down -- including Russia, China, and Syria's business
community, that they were backing the wrong side.
"The point is to make the transition look more inevitable,"
said the diplomat.
ARMS SUPPLIES
Highlighting the limits of diplomacy to end the violence so
far, a source with the Syrian National Council, the main
opposition grouping, said arms were already being ferried to
rebels fighting Assad's forces inside Syria.
"We are bringing in defensive and offensive weapons... It is
coming from everywhere, including Western countries and it is
not difficult to get anything through the borders," the source
told Reuters in Tunis, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There is not a decision by any country to arm the rebels
but countries are allowing Syrians to buy weapons and send them
into the country."
The "Friends of Syria" was unlikely to publicly endorse the
supply of arms because their public position is that they want a
negotiated solution to the violence.
Equally, there was no sign they would try to stop the
supplies, seen in many capitals as an unavoidable result of the
United Nations' failure to take firm action after Russia and
China blocked resolutions on Syria.
A crowd of several hundred Assad supporters tried to force
their way into the venue of the meeting, a seaside hotel in a
suburb of Tunis, minutes before the session was scheduled to
begin. They were held back by Tunisian security forces.
A draft of the declaration to be issued at the meeting
called on Syria to "immediately cease all violence" to allow the
United Nations access to Homs, and to let agencies deliver aid
to civilians affected by the violence.
The "Friends of Syria" pledged, in the latest version of the
draft seen by Reuters, to deliver humanitarian supplies within
48 hours if Syria's government "stopped its assault on civilian
areas and permitted access."
Assad's government appears reluctant to allow foreign aid
in. The International Committee of the Red Cross has for days
been trying to negotiate access for relief supplies but said it
had received no reply to its request from Damascus.
A senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council
said it would take pressure from Russia -- Assad's closest
big-power ally -- to force the Syrian leader to comply.
"I think there is only one option which has not been fully
explored, and that is the Russians forcing the regime to allow
humanitarian access. That is the only option I see," said Basma
Kodmani.
In a sign the international community is seeking ways around
the Security Council deadlock, U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon said he would dispatch former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to
Syria as a joint U.N.-Arab League envoy.
HARSH REALITIES
The draft "Friends of Syria" communique did not mention any
foreign military intervention along the lines of the NATO
bombing campaign that helped force out Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Instead, it called for further diplomatic pressure on Assad
to step down and endorsed an Arab League plan that would see him
handing power to a deputy as a prelude to elections.
The group will also commit to enforce sanctions aimed at
pressuring the Syrian authorities to halt violence, according to
the draft declaration.
These include travel bans, asset freezes, a halt to
purchases of Syrian oil, ceasing infrastructure investment and
financial services relating to Syria, reducing diplomatic ties
and preventing arms shipments to the Syrian government.
The wording of the draft reflected a harsh reality: there is
little the outside world can or will do to stop the violence as
long as Russia and China, both of which declined invitations to
the Tunis meeting, reject Security Council resolutions.
Divisions within the Syrian opposition pose another problem
for world powers, who will seek to overcome them before offering
full backing.
The draft stopped short of fully endorsing the Syrian
National Council as the sole legitimate representative of the
Syrian people but proposed that it be recognised as "a
legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic
change".
It committed the group to "increase its engagement" with the
Syrian opposition while urging it to create a mechanism for
disparate groups to coordinate, and to agree on a common set of
principles that would lay the foundations for a future Syrian
government.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Lou
Charbonneau at the United Nations, Arshad Mohammed, Tarek Amara
and John Hemming in Tunis; Writing by Lin Noueihed and Christian
Lowe; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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