A new UN body tasked with identifying individuals guilty of atrocities in Syria should start work shortly, a key step towards holding war crimes suspects to account, the UN rights chief said Monday (May 1st).

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told reporters in Geneva a prominent judge or international lawyer to head the panel will be named "soon", after funding for the post and a deputy was secured, AFP reported.

An initial budget of $13 million has been nearly half funded but there is optimism about achieving the full amount after "quite a lot of countries" began contributing, the UN rights chief said.

The panel approved by the UN General Assembly in December has been denounced by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government as unacceptable interference in the country's affairs.

The new panel, based in Geneva, will work with evidence already compiled by a UN-backed Commission of Inquiry for Syria as well as testimony and documents compiled by civil society groups.

It will aim to go further than merely condemn the war crimes committed in Syria, and instead strive to name specific individuals responsible for those crimes and, ideally, assign their cases to courts that may have standing to prosecute.