Syria suspended from Arab League

The league has also appealed to member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, according to Qatar's Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim. He said the suspension would take effect from 16 November.

"We were criticised for taking a long time, but this was out of our concern for Syria," Sheik Jassm told reporters in Cairo. "We needed to have a majority to approve those decisions.

"We are calling all Syrian opposition parties to a meeting at the Arab league headquarters to agree a unified vision for the transitional period."

'Serving a western agenda'

President Bashar al-Assad has pressed ahead with the crackdown on protesters against his rule, despite an Arab peace plan brokered on 2 November. The UN says more than 3,500 people have been killed in seven months of violence.

Syria's representative to the Arab League said suspending Damascus violated the organisation's charter and showed it was "serving a western and American agenda".

Earlier this week a spokesman for the Avaaz human rights group, speaking to Channel 4 News, predicted Syria's suspension.

On Wednesday Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the league "to respond swiftly and decisively with diplomatic pressure" to enforce commitments Syria made in regard to its treatment of anti-government protesters.

"These developments to us confirm that President Assad must step aside and allow others to take forward the political transition the country desperately needs," the foreign secretary said.