Setback for Syria peace plan The UN peace plan for Syria received a serious blow on Sunday when Damascus said it would not complete its pullback of forces from populated areas until it had written ceasefire guarantees from the rebels. The procedural dispute - coming at the end of a particularly bloody weekend in which over 100 people were reported to have been killed - is likely erode already flagging confidence in the UN peace initiative. Last Monday Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy, said that Damascus had agreed to pull back its army units from populated areas by April 10, supposedly paving the way for a cessation of violence on April 12. A statement released by the Syrian foreign ministry two days before the troop withdrawal deadline, however, said that this was a "wrong interpretation" and that Damascus needed "written guarantees" that armed groups would cease fire. Jihad Makdissi, a foreign ministry official, said that while Damascus had begun to implement the military pullback, "completing and achieving the main goal" would require guarantees from the other side and those supporting them. Ahmad Fawzi, Mr Annan's representative, said that the foreign ministry statement constituted a "wrong interpretation" of the UN peace plan, but insisted it did not represent a setback to the initiative because discussions between Mr Annan and the foreign minister were continuing. However, Salman Shaikh, a former UN official and director of the Brookings Doha Center, a think-tank, said: "We are seeing the beginning of the end of the Annan mission." Mr Shaikh argued that the steps required by Mr Annan's initiative - which envisages an eventual political solution to Syria's crisis once a verifiable cessation of violence has been achieved - are becoming increasingly hard to take as the death toll rises. Over 100 people were killed on the day preceding Sunday's foreign ministry statement, according to the UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory, most of them during a military operation in the central city of Hama. Violence continued on Sunday, the Observatory said, with at least 12 civilians killed, most during a military operation in the rebellious north-western province in Idlib. Twelve soldiers were also reported to have been killed on Sunday. Mr Annan said on Sunday that the recent surge in violence was "unacceptable," and reminded the Syrian government of the "the need for full implementation of its commitments." Faced with a growing influx of refugees from Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish premier, pressed Mr Annan on Saturday to "hold firm" on the April 10 deadline. Many doubted the sincerity of Syria's commitment to the UN initiative even before Sunday's statement called the April 10 deadline into question. Robert Ford, US ambassador to Syria, published satellite images on the American embassy in Damascus's Facebook page on Friday which he said showed armoured vehicles had simply moved from one residential area to another, arguing that recent evidence on the ground did not indicate a "reduction in offensive Syrian government security operations." Though the Annan plan has been criticised for not putting enough pressure on the regime, it is the only initiative that Syria's allies Russia and China have given their support to in the UN security council, and it is not clear what the diplomatic alternative would be if were to unravel.