Activists said they were planning the biggest protests to date Friday against Assad, who inherited power from his late father 11 years ago but has failed to deliver on early promises of sweeping reform.

The president has been trying to defuse the protests by launching a bloody crackdown along with a series of concessions, most recently lifting emergency laws that gave authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest.

He has also fulfilled a decades-old demand by granting citizenship to thousands among Syria's long-ostracized Kurdish minority, fired local officials, released detainees and formed a new government.

But many protesters said Assad does not deserve the credit.

"The state of emergency was toppled, not lifted," prominent Syrian activist Suhair Atassi, who was arrested several times in the past, wrote on her Twitter page. "It is a victory as a result of demonstrations, protests and the blood of martyrs who called for Syria's freedom."

Assad ratified the end of emergency rule on Thursday, a formality after his government abolished it two days ago. Although it is a significant overture, critics say many laws that justify imprisonment still exist.

New protests were expected after Friday prayers. The movement has crossed a significant threshold in recent days, with increasing numbers now seeking nothing less than the downfall of the regime.

Amnesty International urged the Syrian authorities to show restraint Friday, saying the government's response to the protests will test its sincerity in undertaking reforms. "If government security forces resort to the same extremely violent tactics they have used over the past month, the consequences could be exceedingly grave," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.

On Thursday, Syria deployed soldiers and armed security agents in plainclothes in the tense central city of Homs, presumably to establish their positions ahead of the rallies. And a small pro-democracy protest broke out in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasaka, an area hit by a water crisis that displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the last six years.