The announcement on Monday was welcomed by UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, and follows a successful but difficult three-day operation to allow civilians to leave Homs, with gunfire and attacks frustrating progress.

Three hundred people were evacuated Monday from the besieged districts of Syria's Homs in the fourth day of a humanitarian operation, the Syrian Red Crescent said via Twitter.

"Group of around 300 people have been evacuated just now from old city Homs," said the humanitarian organization.

The latest evacuations bring the total number of civilians given safe passage out of the war-ravaged central part of the city up to some 1,000 since Friday.

Militant groups’ neighborhoods in Homs, Syria's third largest city, have been under a tight army blockade for more than 18 months, and some 3,000 people had been living on little more than olives and herbs.

According to the Syrian Red Crescent, 300 people left Monday, "most of them... women and children."

No truce violations were reported Monday, though 14 people, including at least three militants, were killed in clashes on the besieged neighborhoods on previous days.

NJF/NJF