"After intense negotiation in recent days between the government and the (rebel) Free Syrian Army through mediators from the neighborhood, the following agreement has been reached: ceasefire between the two sides," a statement posted by the opposition local council said.

The two sides also agreed "the withdrawal of Assad's army from all of Barzeh, and the cleaning of the streets (of abandoned corpses), in preparation for the road to be opened" by the militants, the statement said.

"The Free Syrian Army will be the one manning traffic" through the district, which has been blocked off ever since the militants took over the neighborhood, the statement added.

Local activist Abu Ammar said that although the agreed clauses have not yet been implemented, "the intensity of the fighting has been reduced greatly in the past three days."

The truce also envisages that residents who had fled the district will be able to return within two weeks, and that "services will be restored."

Much of Barzeh has been destroyed in the fighting since it became an all-out war zone in March last year.

State news agency SANA had earlier reported that "200 members of the so-called Free Syrian Army and the Al-Nusra Front have handed themselves in" to the government.

The agreement comes weeks after opposition militants in Moadamiyet al-Sham, a besieged, rebel-held town southwest of Damascus agreed a similar truce with the army, allowing food to enter for the first time in months.

NJF/NJF