Kofi Annan, the international envoy trying to end the yearlong conflict in Syria, is looking at the possibility of borrowing UN peacekeeping troops to monitor a cease-fire.

Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told The Associated Press on Thursday that his team is looking at drawing troops from the Mideast where the UN has three peacekeeping missions -truce monitors who have been on the ground since 1948, an observer force in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel, and a force in southern Lebanon.

"We are looking at options that will allow urgent and fast deployment, and that includes the possibility of borrowing troops from missions in the region,'' Fawzi said.