Gunfire continues in Syria but UN Chief hopeful

Syria has not fully complied with a U.N.-backed peace plan for the country and hasyet to send a clear signal about its commitment to ending more than a year of violence, the U.N. chief told the Security Council.At the same time, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that there may be a chance for progress on ending a 13-month conflict that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war.Ban proposed an expanded U.N. monitoring mission, which, if approved by the council, would be comprised of an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed observers to supervise a fragile week-old ceasefire between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters seeking to oust him.But he cautioned that the fighting had not ended. The Syrian Government has yet to fully implement its initial obligations regarding the actions and deployments of its troops, or to return them to barracks, he said in a preliminary assessment of Syrias compliance with a resolution on Syria the Security Council passed on Saturday.Violent incidents and reports of casualties have escalated again in recent days, with reports of shelling of civilian areas and abuses by Government forces, he said. The Governmentreports violent actions by armed groups.Diplomats on the 15-nation council say Bans report and a briefing they will receive from U.N .-Arab League mediator Kofi Annans deputy, Jean-Marie Guehenno, on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. (1300 GMT) will be crucial in determining whether the conditions are right for deploying a larger monitoring mission to Syria.