DAMASCUS: Syria's government, under massive pressure to reform or quit, has adopted a draft law allowing for new political parties to operate alongside the ruling Baath party.

However, the crackdown on dissent forges on, with security forces deploying in their hundreds in the Damascus neighbourhood of Rukneddin on Monday to carry out searches and arrests while more tanks moved into Homs, activists said.

The cabinet late on Sunday “adopted a draft law regarding political parties in Syria as part of a programme of reform aimed at enriching the political life,” the official SANA news agency reported.

The aim is to create a “new dynamic and allowing for a change in political power” in Syria, one of the Middle East's most autocratic countries which has been under Baath rule for nearly five decades.

Protesters defying the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in almost daily demonstrations since March 15 have been demanding democratic changes, including an end to Baath hegemony.

The current constitution stipulates that the Baath party, in power since 1963, is “the leader of state and society.”

According to SANA, the draft law adopted by the government bans the creation of parties based on “religion, tribal affiliation, regional interests”as well as those that discriminate along racial lines or gender.

The draft law also stipulates that “party organs should not comprise any military or paramilitary elements, whether public or secret” and that objectives and funding must be clearly established.

Prime Minister Adel Safar, who formed his government in April less than a month after the former premier quit in the face of anti-regime protests, in June named a committee tasked with drafting a law on political parties.

Also in April, Assad signed a decree to lift almost five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolish feared state security courts.

But the efforts of Assad, in power since replacing his father Hafez as president in 2000, failed to garner popular support and protests have rocked Syria for more than four months, calling on him to quit.

Security forces have pursued campaigns of arrests despite the lifting of the state of emergency.

The authorities have used deadly force to quell dissent, with at least 1,486 civilians reported killed since mid-March, human rights groups say.

The violence has also claimed the lives of 365 members of the security forces and driven thousands to flee to safety outside Syria, and at least 12,000 have been detained.