Assad also ordered an investigation into protest deaths in the flashpoint city of Daraa and the port of Latakia.
It was doubtful that Assad's gestures would defuse the outbreak of public discontent in the country. Online activists have called on protesters to demonstrate across the country on what they have dubbed the "Friday of Martyrs" until their demands for democratization are met.
Critics, diplomats and Syrian officials doubted Assad would abolish the emergency law, used to snuff out any opposition, justify arbitrary arrest and give free rein to the security apparatus, without replacing it with similar legislation.
The state news agency SANA said Thursday the panel would study and prepare "legislation including protecting the nation's security and the citizen's dignity and fighting terrorism, paving the way for lifting the emergency law."
It said the committee would complete its work by April 25.
"When you set up a committee in our part of the world, it means you want to bury the issue," said Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University of Beirut. "He's buying time".
A leading Syrian opposition figure told Reuters in an interview this week the British-educated president would replace the law with legislation couched as anti-terrorist measures. "The law could include a clause against any group or person carrying out actions that would affect national security. And it would be under the guise of terrorism," Maamoun Al-Homsi told Reuters from exile in Canada on Monday.
The panel tasked with investigating the deaths of civilians and security forces has the right to "call upon whomever it sees fit to complete the appointed task and has the right to demand any information or documents from any party," SANA said.
Assad also formed a panel to "solve the problem of the 1962 census" in the eastern region of Al-Hasaka. The census resulted in 150,000 Kurds who now live in Syria being denied nationality.
