European foreign ministers agreed on a “road map” to lift financial restrictions, but the change will happen in stages.

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. "While we aim to move fast, the lifting of sanctions can be reversed if wrong steps are taken,

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.

"Regarding Syria, we are going to decide today to lift, to suspend, certain sanctions that had applied to the energy and transport sectors and to financial institutions that were key to the financial stabilisation of the country," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on arrival at the EU meeting in Brussels.

The European Union may soon suspend sanctions on Syria related to energy and transport but has yet to agree on whether to ease restrictions on financial transactions, according to three diplomats and a document seen by Reuters.

Syria has been subject to sweeping EU sanctions following the outbreak of civil war in 2011, which targeted both individuals and economic sectors. Measures included a ban on Syrian oil exports and restrictions on access to global financial channels.

The EU foreign ministers have agreed on a roadmap to lift sanctions on Syria, contingent on the new leadership's commitment to peace and inclusion.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she expected the bloc to agree Monday to begin easing sanctions on Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

France is lifting some sanctions against Syria, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters on Monday as top diplomats from the European Union met in Brussels to discuss a coordinated