The UN is to send a humanitarian¹ mission to Syria on Saturday to assess the situation there after Damascus' violent crackdown on protesters.

联合国将向叙利亚派遣人道主义代表团评估大马士革暴力镇压反抗者之后的局势。

More than 2,000 people have reportedly been killed in Syria since the unrest began in March
The UN humanitarian chief said Damascus had pledged the mission "will have full access to where we want to go".

Earlier, the US and several major EU nations urged Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Syria has repeated that army operations against protesters have ended, a claim not independently verified.

Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said it was "already a fact on the ground, the military and police operations stopped in Syria".

President Assad had said the same in a phone call with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Ja'afari also accused the US of waging a "diplomatic and humanitarian war" against Syria together with some other UN Security Council members.

Human rights groups believe about 2,000 people have been killed and thousands arrested since March as Syria's security forces - including tanks, helicopters, gunships and snipers（狙击手） - try to quell²（平息，镇压） dissent³ that has broken out in much of the country.

President Assad has promised political reforms but has continued to clamp down（镇压） on the protesters, blaming the unrest on "terrorist groups".

On Thursday, UN Humanitarian Affairs chief Valerie Amos said that the UN mission would begin its visit to Syria on Saturday.

"We have been guaranteed that we will have full access," she said.

Ms Amos added that the team - organised by the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) - would "want to concentrate on those places where there have been reports of fighting".

The agreement with the Syrian government comes after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke⁴ to President Assad by telephone on Wednesday, the UN said.

A UN spokesman said the Syrian leader pledged "that the (UN) team would have access to different sites in Syria".

The UN had earlier unsuccessfully tried for several weeks to get humanitarian observers to Syria.

In a separate development, UN investigators⁵ said on Thursday that the use of violence in Syria "may amount to crimes against humanity".

In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, the investigators said the UN Security Council should refer the issue to the International Criminal Court.