By the CNN Wire Staff

December 19, 2011

Arab League members have been putting pressure on Syria to accept an observer mission in Syria

(CNN) -- Syria has signed an Arab League proposal aimed at ending violence between government forces and protesters, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem announced Monday.

The announcement came just days after the Cairo-based group of Arab nations warned that they could ask the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the restive country.

But Moallem insisted repeatedly that it was Syria's decision to sign the protocol.

"We want a political solution. I do not want the killings to go on," he said.

The U.N. estimates that more than 5,000 people have died since March in an uprising against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Moallem said the country needed a political solution "from national reconciliation and dialogue," but accused "some factions in the opposition, particularly outside Syria," of refusing to participate in the government-backed "national dialogue."

Five Arab League ministers drafted a resolution Saturday calling for the end of violence and approving an observer mission in Syria.

The resolution was hammered out in Doha, Qatar, as 41 people were killed on Saturday by government security forces cracking down on anti-regime elements, an activist group said.

Eight of the dead were members of the Free Syrian Army, the rebel force comprised of military defectors.

World powers have deplored the government's activity, and they are looking for ways to rein in violence and urgently contain the threat of civil war, reflected in the emergence of the armed defector force.

The Arab League devised and promoted the plan to send observers to Syria weeks ago, but the government in Damascus raised objections and called for caveats to the resolution.

The league -- which expelled Syria last month -- had accused the al-Assad regime of procrastinating in dealing with the proposal.

Sanctions against Syria have been initiated by the United States, the European Union, Turkey and the league.

The passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution would require an approval by two permanent council members -- Russia, a longtime ally of Syria, and China, both of whom have rejected tough action at the U.N. toward Syria.