Syria has agreed to "immediately" start pulling troops out of protest cities, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said Monday but Western nations quickly expressed doubts that the new promises would be kept.

Annan said President Bashar al-Assad's foreign minister had agreed to complete a troop and heavy weapon withdrawal by April 10, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Syria crisis.

Sunday's "Friends of Syria" conference sidestepped solid measures against the Damascus regime for fear of getting sucked into a conflict that could defy control, analysts and experts said.

Although most countries are committed to a political transition that puts President Bashar al-Assad out of power, they are concerned with the military venture they might have to risk for that, observers suggested.

Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger is traveling to Syria Monday where he will meet ministers over humanitarian and detention issues, the ICRC relief agency said.

"I am determined to see the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent expand their presence, range and scope of activities to address the needs of vulnerable people. This will be a key element of my talks with the Syrian officials," said Kellenberger in a statement.

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church has decided to boycott an Islamist-dominated panel charged with drafting the future constitution, the official MENA news agency reported on Monday.

The official MENA news agency reported that the decision was taken unanimously by the 20 members of the Holy Synod to remove the two church officials who sit on the committee.

A Russian navy destroyer will dock at the Syrian port of Tartus in the coming days after setting out on a planned mission to the region, agencies quoted military officials as saying Monday.

The Smetlivy guided-missile destroyer sailed for the Mediterranean from its Black Sea base of Sevastopol over the weekend and will shortly arrive at the Russian-leased port in Syria, state news agency and other reports said.

Iraq on Monday said Qatar's welcoming of Baghdad's fugitive Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was "unacceptable" and called on Doha to hand him over.

However, al-Hashimi rejected Baghdad’s demand, saying he enjoys constitutional immunity and has not been convicted.

A Syrian government newspaper said on Monday that a weekend meeting in Istanbul of what it called the "Enemies of Syria" was a failure for those seeking to topple President Bashar Assad.

"Despite all the hype, the conference of the 'Enemies of Syria' produced only meager results... showing it was unable to shake Syrians' rejection of foreign intervention," said al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of Assad's ruling party by the same name.

Yemen's army shelled al-Qaida hideouts in the southern city of Zinjibar, one of the jihadists' major strongholds, killing six militants, a local official told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The official, speaking from the nearby town of Jaar where wounded militants and dead bodies from Zinjibar are usually taken, said that "a Somali group leader named Abu Bilal" was among those killed in the late Sunday assault.

Russia said on Monday that the "Friends of Syria" meeting in Istanbul at the weekend contradicted the objective of reaching a peaceful settlement that could end more than a year of bloodshed.

"The promises and intentions to deliver direct military and logistical support to the armed... opposition that were voiced in Istanbul unquestionably contradict the goals of a peaceful settlement to the civil conflict in Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A blast ripped through central Damascus near a hotel and a police station on Monday, injuring at least four people and damaging shops, official Syrian television al-Ikhbariya and witnesses said.

"A bomb exploded loudly near the Hotel Kinda" in busy Marja neighborhood in the center of the capital, the television said.