UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on a visit to Baghdad on Monday that the conflict in Syria represented a threat to world peace but denied he was seeking peacekeepers for the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, meanwhile, called for quick progress in resolving the crisis and reiterated calls for a political solution, during talks with the veteran Algerian diplomat.

After also meeting President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Brahimi told reporters that he discussed the Syrian conflict "and the danger it represents to its people, its neighbours and to world peace."

"You've read that I have asked for peacekeeping," Brahimi said at a joint news conference with Zebari. "I haven't."

"I don't know where this news came (from). It certainly did not come from me."

Earlier, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council said Brahimi was considering proposing the deployment of peacekeepers to Syria if a deal on a transition was reached.

At the news conference, Brahimi also called for the arms flows to be stopped to all parties in the conflict.

Brahimi, who is on his second regional tour aimed at finding a solution to the 19-month conflict since taking up the post at the start of September, added that he would travel to Cairo after Baghdad and visit Syria in the coming days.

The troubleshooter met with officials in Saudi Arabia and Turkey last week, and was in Tehran before arriving in Baghdad on Monday.

Brahimi called earlier for a temporary ceasefire in Syria during the four-day Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday at the end of this month.

Maliki, meanwhile, "warned of continuing conflict in Syria, and called for quick movement in order to maintain the lives of the Syrian brothers, and also to maintain the security and stability of the region," the premier's office said.

"Iraq backs all the efforts of the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria for the sake of reaching a political solution for the worsening crisis in Syria," it quoted Maliki as saying.

Iraq has pointedly avoided calling for the departure from office of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is locked in a deadly conflict with rebels opposed to his regime, and has instead urged an end to violence by all parties.