The UN Security Council will discuss the crisis in Syria later today.
The unexpected meeting was announced by France's UN mission on its Twitter account after representatives of the council's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States held talks yesterday on the new resolution.
A new resolution giving strong backing to the Arab League's initiative to end the Syria crisis has been drawn up by Britain, France, Germany and a number of Arab nations.
The Arab League has called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over powers to a deputy so that elections can be held in Syria where the UN says more than 5,400 people have died since protests started in March last year.
