U.S. Says Assad Not Meeting Pledges

The United States said Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was failing to live up to pledges for a truce and warned that it will judge him by "his actions, not by his words."

Fierce clashes were reported again Tuesday in Syria despite Assad's assurances to peace envoy Kofi Annan that he would "immediately" start pulling back forces and complete a military withdrawal from urban areas by April 10.

"The assertion to Kofi Annan was that Assad would start implementing his commitments immediately to withdraw from cities. I want to advise that we have seen no evidence today that he is implementing any of those commitments," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

"We're going to judge this guy by his actions, not by his words," she said.

The United States has repeatedly urged Assad to step down and end the year-long crackdown on anti-government protests that the United Nations believes has killed more than 9,000 people.

The United States has also said it supports the mediation to end the violence by Annan, a former secretary general of the United Nations.

In Geneva, a spokesman for Annan said that a U.N. advance team would arrive in Syria in the next two days. But in a briefing Monday to the Security Council, Annan reported no progress on reaching a ceasefire, according to diplomats.