Presenting its first interim report after more than a fortnight in the country, the mission found the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had failed to honour a promise to end the violence.
Syria has flouted the terms of a regional peace plan to stop the mass killing of protesters, the Arab League said on Sunday as the organisation refused to withdraw its observer mission.
Presenting its first interim report after more than a fortnight in the country, the mission found the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had failed to honour a promise to end the violence.
It also admitted, contrary to earlier claims, that the Syrian army had not withdrawn from the centre of all restive towns and cities.
With hundreds of protesters dying at the hands of the security forces and pro-regime gunmen since observers arrived in Syria last month, the Arab League has faced accusations that its mission has played into the hands of the regime.
The backlash, led by the Syrian opposition but supported by other prominent voices in the region, has caused deep divisions within the League.
Qatar, the Arab power most critical of Damascus, has privately pushed for a greater UN role within the monitoring mission. But foreign ministers on the League's Syria steering committee, which met in Cairo on Sunday, ruled out inviting UN experts to join it.
Instead they agreed that Qatar could continue "to coordinate with the Secretary General of the United Nations to enhance the technical abilities of the monitors' commission."
The reluctance to withdraw reflected the hopes of League members and Nabil el-Araby, the bloc's secretary-general, to prove that the Arab world can resolve the crisis without Western assistance.
But many in the Syrian opposition say they have lost confidence in the Arab League's handling of the situation and are urging it to push for a UN Security Council resolution setting up safe zones. Reports on Sunday said 21 people were killed, 10 of them civilians.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister who chaired Sunday's meeting, pleaded for more time, insisting that the mission had reduced the level of killing and that the violence would abate further once it had reached its full strength of 300 monitors.
He said the mission would file a full report on January 19.
"That's when we have to make a decision - and we have to be honest with ourselves and the Syrian people," he told reporters.
One Arab League official was quoted as saying that the bloc had shied away from total condemnation of Damascus for fear of jeopardising its relationship with the regime.
Assad's government received a second boost yesterday after a large Russian naval flotilla, led by an aircraft carrier, docked in the Syrian port of Tartus.
Syrian state media trumpeted the mission as evidence of Russia's commitment to its ally.
The Russian defence minister was more circumspect, saying only that the naval vessels had docked "to replenish their supplies".
Although Russia has grown more critical of Damascus recently, it remains the Assad regime's most important ally and has consistently blocked Security Council action against Syria, despite the fact that nearly 6,000 people are said to have been killed since the uprising began 10 months ago.
The port of Tartus is part of the reason for Moscow's support. Russia has recently expanded an old Cold War naval base there, which it sees as instrumental in challenging US maritime dominance over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
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