Mr. Fawzi acknowledged that there had been no “big signs” of compliance with the plan on the ground, but small ones but said thatthe crisis in Syria “is not going to be resolved in a day or a week. Realistically, it’s going to take a little more time to pull all the strings together, but rest assured that they are being pulled together.”

Meanwhile, the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, reported the deaths of 33 people in renewed violence across the country, accoridng to Al Jazeera.  Massive anti-government protests were also reported.

Demonstrations swept across the country province after Friday prayers. People left the mosques and filled the streets chanting for freedom, demanded  the free Syrian army to be armed, and the execution of Assad.

Abu Omar, a local activist, told Reuters, that troops also fired on demonstrators outside the main mosque in the Damascus neighbourhood of Jubar.

Other massive demonstrations were also reported in Hasakeh, northeast of Damascus.

Anti-regime demonstrations have been staged after prayers each Friday with a different slogan each week since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule broke out in March 2011. This friday’s slogan was “Our commitment is our salvation.”

On Thursday 23 people died, including four students killed when regime troops stormed the campus at Aleppo University, in northern Syria, following anti-regime protests.

The university has now closed, according to an announcement on its website.

The head of the observer mission, Norwegian Major General Robert Mood, told reporters on Thursday in Syria that there was still “a good chance and an opportunity” to halt violence.

Fawzi said Mood’s team would have “around 50″ observers on the ground by the end of Friday, and that the United Nations had obtained commitments from different nations for 150 of the 300 observers that the UN Security Council authorised.

“It’s not an advance team any longer,” Fawzi said. “The numbers are growing every day.”

He also said Mood’s truce observers are not being targeted, despite suicide blasts occurring near a hotel where some of them were staying. But Fawzi acknowledged that “there are days when things are progressing in a satisfactory manner, and there are days where we feel that it’s a rough ride”.

The violence in Syria, has claimed over 9,000 lives, mostly civilians, and displaced tens of thousands, according to the U.N while activists put the number to more than 11,000.

The death toll of civilians killed today has risen to 28, the same source reports, with 14 people killed in Hama most of which were killed in random gunfire by the Syrian  forces.

The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), confirmed that it had received reports of several “suspicious explosions” earlier in the morning in Damascus “in or near several government buildings, including the official state media and television office; a security centre in Rukneddine; and the Central Bank building in Sabaa Bahrat Square”,  AlJazeera reported citing the opposition group.

On the other hand, Syria’s state-run news agency reported that monday’s explosions  killed at least eight people amongst them civilians and security forces, blaming “armed gangs” for the attacks.

Meanwhile, The Norwegian General Robert Mood head of the UN mission to Syria charged with overseeing the shaky U.N.-backed ceasefire in Syria, arrived in Damascus on Sunday in the country promising it would “rapidly” reach its planned strength of 300 monitors.

The head of the UN observer mission to Syria has warned that even 1,000 unarmed observers could not end the violence in the country on their own. General Robert Mood urged all sides to halt fighting and said peace must be a joint effort.

30 observers will follow General Mood in the coming days, increasing the size of the mission. The UN has approved up to 300.

“The mission of the observers may be risky. The situation in Syria remains fragile, and one will be completely dependent on both parties respecting the integrity of UN personnel,” says Norweigian Minister of Defence Espen Barth Eid.

“We therefore have to have realistic expectations in terms of what the observer force can achieve. Still, our hope is that the presence of the observers may help reduce the level of violence in the country,” he added in a statement released by the Norweigian mission to  UN website.

Mood has been a military advisor to Kofi Annan by supporting Annan in his efforts to halt the violence in Syria, and to prepare the ground for the establishment of an observer mission.

The UN Security Council on April 21st unanimously decided to establish an unarmed military observer force. Last Saturday, the Security Council authorized the establishment of UNSMIS,an observer mission made up of up to 300 unarmed military observers an deployed for an initial period of 90 days, to monitor the cessation of violence in Syria.

Born in Norway in 1958, Mr. Mood has extensive experience and knowledge ofpeacekeeping operations at a national and international level, including inUN operations such as the Organization¹s Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)from 1989 to 1990.

The observers are also tasked with monitoring and supporting the full implementation of the six-point peace plan put fornt by the Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, Kofi Annan, which calls for an end to the violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, and the start of inclusive political dialogue that takes into account the wants of the Syrian people.