But state television in Damascus issued a statement from the office of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa saying that he "has never at any moment thought of leaving the homeland to whatever direction".
Mr al-Sharaa is the most senior Sunni member of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who comes from the smaller Alawite clan.In one of several conflicting reports, leaders of the Free Syrian Army said that it had lost contact with rebel commandos who were trying to smuggle the vice-president out of the country.
Mr al-Sharaa’s cousin, a senior intelligence officer, defected on Thursday, the latest in a stream of top Sunni officials to abandon the regime in recent weeks, including Riyad Hajib, the prime minister.Mr al-Sharaa has been vice president since 2006 and previously served for 20 years as foreign minister.
He has long been regarded as an old guard loyalist whose name wasfloated during some Arab League meetings as a possible insider successor to the president.
"Farouq al-Sharaa did defect, but we were trying to get him through to Jordan," FSA spokesman Louai Miqdad told CNN on Saturday.
It was unclear whether it was significant that the regime statement denying his defection was issued by his office, rather than in his own words.
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