BEIRUT: Syria said Monday it “would like” to agree soon to an Arab League peace plan to end its eight-month crackdown on popular unrest, but rejected foreign interference and demanded the annulment of sanctions plus reinstatement in the regional bloc.

The conditions were set in a letter to the League by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, described by his spokesman as a “positive” response requiring an Arab League reply.

In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said “the conditions contained new elements that we have not heard before.” League ministers were studying the response.

Syria meanwhile has retaliated against northern neighbor Turkey for the sanctions imposed by its former friend, imposing a tariff of 30 percent on its imports and prohibitive duties on fuel and freight.

Turkey shrugged it off, saying “common sense” should tell Syria that its own people would suffer most.

In a display of muscle that could be intended to deter any idea of foreign military intervention in a crisis which has killed at least 4,000 people, the army staged a big exercise with missiles, rockets, tanks and helicopters.

Top generals watched the war games and state television made it the headline news story, even as the death toll mounted.

Activists in Homs said 60 bodies were taken to several hospitals in the city Monday.

Five civilians were killed by security forces in Homs, the country’s third largest city, according to the activist website Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Four died when troops fired on a funeral procession and one man was shot at a hospital. A youth died of gunshot wounds sustained at the weekend.

In the southern Deraa province, three members of the security forces were shot dead by army defectors in front of the Dael courthouse, the website said. The corpse of Ismail Aqla al-Amri, 35, was handed back to relatives in Deraa, a victim of state torture, it said, and dozens more arrests were reported.

Already hit by sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe, Syria was punished last month by neighboring states, with sanctions announced by the Arab League and imposed by Turkey, once President Bashar Assad’s ally.

The League’s sanctions have yet to take effect. It has repeatedly extended deadlines for Damascus to agree to a peace plan that would see Arab monitors oversee its withdrawal of troops from towns. The latest expired Sunday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi said Damascus was still looking at the Arab League plan.

“The protocol is intended to be signed soon,” he said. “The Syrian government has responded positively … I am optimistic, although I await the Arab League response first.”

Basma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council, said announcements by Damascus had no credibility, adding: “Any announcements made by the Syrian regime while the military crackdown continues has for us zero credibility.”

Kodmani said Damascus was trying to “embarrass” the Arab League, adding there was absolutely no justification for lifting the sanctions within the current crackdown. Syria says the Arab proposal to admit observers infringes its sovereignty, and has asked for clarification. It has stalled more than once and reneged on promises to rein in its forces.

SANA expressed regret mixed with defiance of sanctions. “The Arab League sanctions … have been a shock for every Syrian and Arab citizen … as these sanctions came from sisterly countries,” it said. “Syria will overcome those sanctions by virtue of its strategic location and the diversity of its production sectors.”

Syria’s Arab neighbors Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan have all said they would not join a trade sanctions campaign.

In a reminder to outsiders of Syria’s powerful, mainly Russian-supplied armed forces, state television and SANA showed top generals watching a live-fire exercise by missile units, mechanized brigades and aircraft, to test their capacity in “confronting any attack” on Syria.

It did not report the scale of the war games.

“Gen. [Dawood Abdullah] Rajiha stressed that the armed forces, under the leadership of President Bashar Assad will remain loyal to the homeland and will defend the interests of the Syrian people,” SANA said. Rajiha is the defense minister.

Makdesi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the war games were a “routine” exercise and not intended to send any message.

The first cracks appeared in one of the pillars of Assad’s regime at the weekend with the desertion of some members of the secret police to the ranks of a rebel “free army.” At least a dozen members of the secret police deserted from the Air Force Intelligence complex in Idlib city, 280 kilometers northwest of Damascus, triggering a gunbattle with defectors in which 10 were killed or wounded on either side, activists said.

Opposition sources said a further 16 soldiers defected from units in Idlib Sunday and a new group of defectors of similar size battled loyalist troops to the south, in the Josieh area on the border with Lebanon.

Assad’s opponents estimate the strength of the rebel force at several thousand mainly army recruits from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, have a tight grip on the military and security apparatus.

SANA reported military funerals Monday “with flowers and wreaths” for a further seven killed.

Separately, the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the detention of U.S.-born blogger and press freedom campaigner Razan Ghazzawi, and called on Syrian authorities to immediately release her. Ghazzawi was arrested Sunday at the border while on her way to Jordan, according to a statement by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression where she worked.