Major General Robert Mood of Norway has been appointed head of an advance team from the U.N. to Syria. The team is expected in Damascus within 48 hours the UN has announced . The team will discuss deployment of observers to monitor a ceasefire in Syria, the spokesman for international mediator Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. The Major General will have talks with the UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, in Geneva on Wednesday.

General Mood has had an extensive and distinguished military career, serving since 2005 as the Chief of Staff of the Norwegian Army.

He also served as head of mission of the U.N. Truce Supervision Organization known as UNTSO, the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the Middle East, for two years until February 2011.

(NRK/norwaypost)