European Union foreign ministers have agreed to begin lifting sanctions on Syria, but insist that the measures should be reimposed if they see any abuses by the country’s new rulers.

European Union foreign ministers have agreed on a roadmap to ease sanctions on Syria, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

A six-phase “road map” prepared by the EU’s foreign service advocates a “staged approach” to lifting sanctions on the country “to incentivise peaceful transition and reconstruction”. An arms embargo, sanctions on equipment used for internal repression and measures targeting Assad regime officials would be exempt, the document states.

EU foreign ministers were discussing the matter at a meeting in Brussels on Monday with the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas having told Reuters that she was hopeful an agreement on easing the sanctions could be reached.

The European Union agreed on Monday to start easing sanctions on Syria in light of the ousting of President Bashar Assad in December.