The Syrian government shelled several dissident provinces on Wednesday, quickly contradicting a pledge by Damascus to observe an international peace plan that called for a withdrawal of security forces from rebel areas.

Opposition activists said security forces attacked the provinces of Idlib, Homs and Daraa, killing at least 21 people, including government soldiers and dissidents. Troops were also reportedly advancing on towns in Hama province, which activists say has been hit by heavy gunfire and artillery for days.

"People are fleeing their homes, many of them unsure which direction to take," an activist in Hama who identified himself as Ammar told the Associated Press news agency.

The fighting was despite President Bashar al-Assad's reported acceptance of a peace plan proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. The plan calls for Assad to stop troop movements and the use of heavy weaponry in populated areas, and to establish a daily two-hour pause in fighting to give humanitarian workers access to wounded and needy civilians.

It also calls for a complete cease-fire to allow for political talks between the opposition and the government.

Arab League summit

As the fighting in Syria continued, foreign ministers of the Arab League began preparing for a summit on Thursday that is to focus on the fighting in Syria, which had its membership suspended last November.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who was hosting his Arab League counterparts in Baghdad, said the summit would not call for Assad's resignation, as Qatar and Saudi Arabia have advocated. He added that foreign ministers did not discuss the possibility of arming Syrian rebels.

"The subject of Syria is urgent and it is no longer a regional, local, national, or Arab subject," Zebari said. "It is now an issue discussed on an international level."

Even before the arrival of Arab League heads of state and government in Baghdad, the Syrian government said it "will not deal with any initiative" that arises from the summit.

Meanwhile Syria's opposition factions agreed on Tuesday to name the Syrian National Council (SNC) as their representative to a Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul this weekend. The SNC immediately called on President Assad to pull out tanks to show he was serious about a peace plan.

acb/rc (AP, dpa)