A UN survey showed that the impact of the conflict in Syria would be "overwhelming and traumatic," and that it would take 30 years for the Syrian economy to recover to the 2010 level, a UN spokesman told reporters here Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by Relief and Works Agency of UN's Microfinance Programs, was carried out in what the report calls " an economic catastrophe," with the vast majority of its clients displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said at a daily news briefing here.

"However, displacement, physical destruction and looting have taken place on such a massive scale that only 13 percent of businesses supported by the Relief and Works Agency were able to survive," he said.

Asked about insecurity near the Syrian port of Latakia, the spokesman said a joint mission overseeing the destruction of Syria 's stockpiles of chemical weapons had noted the need for a secure environment to allow the transport of chemical weapons material to Latakia.

"At the same time, the Mission (the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations) had emphasized the need for Syria to maintain the steady pace of delivery of such materials to Latakia for its onward shipment," Haq said.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "brutality continues unabated" in Syria after more than 100,000 people have been reportedly killed and more than 600,000 others injured since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March 2011.

"Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, including aerial bombings, shelling, mortars and car bombs in populated areas, caused mass civilian death and injuries and forced displacement," said the spokesman. "Publicly available reports indicate that clashes between the government and opposition forces continued in most parts of Syria." Endite

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