There is no suggestion from the Syrian government side that the observer mission should be ended

The Arab League is beginning a series of discussions over whether to extend its controversial monitoring mission to Syria, amid ongoing violence.

A report by the head of the mission will be discussed by a panel in Cairo on Saturday, before Arab League foreign ministers make a decision on Sunday.

The 165-strong mission expired on Thursday with no sign of a halt to the government's crackdown on protesters.

Analysts say the league is expected to renew the mission for another month.

Violence across Syria continued on Friday, with activists saying that said seven people were killed by security forces.

The UN Security Council was told earlier this month that 400 people had been killed during the monitors' first 10 days in Syria.

The UN had previously said that more than 5,000 had died since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted last March.

The government in Damascus says that some 2,000 members of the security forces have also been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists".

In a separate development, the US says it is considering closing its embassy in Damascus because of increasing safety concerns.

Officials in Washington say they are talking to the Syrian authorities, as well as to the British and Chinese governments, who have embassies nearby. But no final decision had been taken.

'No appetite'

The report by the Arab League mission's head, Sudanese Gen Mohammed al-Dabi, is due to be discussed by a committee of ministers on Saturday.

The panel is chaired by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, whose country has previously suggested sending Arab peacekeepers to Syria.

Damascus has firmly rejected the idea.

It appears that there is no clearly thought out alternative to the monitoring mission, and no appetite - as yet - for a radical change of course, the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says.

League officials have already hinted that the most likely outcome will be to renew the mission for another month, possibly doubling the number of observers on the ground.

Last week, the head of the Arab League's Cairo operations room, Adnan al-Khudeir, said the observers would remain in 17 difference places around Syria until the final decision is made.

Although the mandate of the observer mission came to an end formally on Thursday, the agreement covering it provides for an extension for a second month if both sides agree.

So far there has been no suggestion from Damascus that the monitors should be withdrawn.

Observers 'manipulated'

On Friday, protesters in Syria called for the end of the observer mission, saying it had failed to halt the crackdown.

"Arab League, your hands are now soiled with the blood of Syrians," said one banner at a rally in a suburb of Damascus.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch called on the Arab League to release in full the report from the observer mission.

The New York-based group said it should do this to address growing concern that its mission had been manipulated by the Syrian authorities.

It said it had documented apparent efforts to transfer hundreds of detainees to improvised holding centres at military sites that were off-limits to the observers, and the issuing of police identification cards to military officials apparently in order to give the impression that troops had withdrawn from civilian areas.

"The Arab League should publicly recognise that Syria has not respected the League's plan and work with the Security Council to increase pressure on the authorities and effectively curtail the use of fire power," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

The main opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council, said its leader Burhan Ghalioun would ask the Arab League to refer the situation in Syria to the Security Council, "with a view to securing a decision to establish a buffer zone and a no-fly zone".