The Arab League has rejected amendments proposed by Syria to a peace plan to end the crisis in the country.
The Cairo-based organisation said the changes put forward by Damascus alter the "essence" of the plan.
In a statement the league told the Syrian government that its proposals were also unacceptable because they introduce "drastic changes" to the mandate of an observers' mission the league wants to dispatch to Syria to ensure the implementation of the peace plan.
President Bashar Assad's regime has cracked down on an eight-month-old uprising against his rule and the league's plan provides for the withdrawal of the government's tanks from the streets, the release of political prisoners and a halt to attacks on civilians.
Assad has vowed to continue with the security crackdown to crush 'militants' who he says are massacring Syrians on a daily basis.
He said Syria will not bow and will continue to resist the pressures being imposed on it.
The embattled president told the Sunday Times that he feels "pain and sorrow" for the bloodshed in Syria but added the solution was to eliminate the militants he blames for much of the violence.
He said 800 Syrian officers and members of the security forces have been killed since the start of the revolt. The UN says 3,500 have been killed in the unrest and the crackdown in Syria since mid-March.
Earlier residents in the Syrian capital woke up to two loud explosions amid activist reports that a major building belonging to the ruling Baath party in the capital Damascus had been by hit several rocket-propelled grenades.
The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network and several residents reported several explosions in the district of Mazraa in the heart of the Syrian capital.
