Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday his country was ready for "any honest effort" to end a year of unrest, but blamed "terrorist groups" for blocking a solution, the state news agency said.

"Syria is ready to make a success of any honest effort to find a solution for the events it is witnessing," SANA quoted Assad as saying. "No political dialogue or political activity can succeed while there are armed terrorist groups operating and spreading chaos and instability."