BEIRUT – Syria’s government has endorsed a draft law that it says will allow the formation of political parties alongside President Bashar Assad’s ruling Baath Party, part of a series of promised reforms that the opposition has dismissed as largely symbolic.

The development came as security forces detained dozens of people in the capital Damascus and several other cities in search for anti-government protesters and regime opponents, activists said Monday. The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said a 7-year-old child, a boxing champion and a writer were among those arrested.

The multiparty bill, approved by the Cabinet late Sunday, follows other concessions Assad has made as part of his efforts to quell more than four months of protests against his regime.

He has coupled his pledges of reform with a deadly crackdown on protesters that activists say has killed at least 1,600 people.

The revolt has only grown more defiant in the face of the government response, and protesters have shifted their demands from political change to the outright downfall of the regime.

The draft law still needs parliamentary approval.

Assad’s ruling Baath Party, which calls for “unity, freedom and socialism,” has held a monopoly over political life in Syria for decades.

Lawmaker Mohammad Habash told the Associated Press on Monday that the bill still needs to be endorsed by parliament and will likely be presented for debate at the next session on Aug. 7.