A major Syrian opposition group Thursday took a step towards re-organizing its ranks by electing a general secretariat.
The new body of the Syrian National Council (NSC) comprises 40 members, who were elected in an overnight vote in the Qatari capital Doha, opposition sources said.
The decision-making body includes liberals, rebels as well as ethnic minorities and tribes from inside Syria, the sources told dpa on condition of anonymity as the formation has yet to be officially announced.
The general secretariat is to meet Thursday to elect a new politburo and a chairman to replace the group's current chief, Abdel Basset Sayda, who took up the post in June, they added.
"After its restructure, the NSC now comprises 32 field groups operating inside Syria," Sayda was reported as saying.
He added that the council would meet in Doha with other opposition groups to discuss the possibility of creating a broad-based executive body.
"This body will not replace the Syrian National Council, which will remain an umbrella grouping for the opposition," he said, according to the Qatari news agency.
The United States has put pressure on the council to overhaul itself and include representatives of rebels fighting to oust the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, said council members.
Washington has reportedly backed a plan suggested by the prominent Syrian dissident Riad Seif to create a new leadership body for the opposition and a government in exile.
Opposition sources say the SNC is to be included in the new entity, but will carry less influence.
The plan is to be discussed at a wider meeting of different opposition groups in Doha.
Senior Arab officials, including the head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, are to attend the talks aimed at forging a united opposition front against al-Assad's regime.
The divisions, which have plagued the SNC since its formation in October 2011, has frustrated Western nations that support the uprising against al-Assad.