Russia, Turkey float plan

Turkey and Russia have prepared an agreement for a ceasefire in Syria, Turkey's foreign minister said, adding Ankara would not budge on its opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying in power.

The comments by Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday appeared to signal a tentative advance in talks aimed at reaching a truce, but the insistence that Assad must go will do little to smooth negotiations with Russia, his biggest backer.

Russia, Iran and Turkey said last week they were ready to help broker a peace deal after holding talks in Moscow where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to.

"There are two texts ready on a solution in Syria. One is about a political resolution and the other is about a ceasefire. They can be implemented any time," Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

A Syrian rebel official said meetings between Ankara and rebel forces were expected to continue this week, but could not confirm whether a final ceasefire agreement had been reached.

The official told Reuters a major sticking point in negotiations between rebel groups and Turkey was that Russia wanted to exclude the Damascus countryside from the ceasefire, but the rebels refused to do so.

A second rebel official told Reuters there was no agreement yet from the side of the rebel factions.

"The details of the ceasefire deal have yet to be officially presented to the factions, and there is no agreement so far," the second official said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said yesterday United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura had spoken by phone with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and supported the efforts to establish a ceasefire and new peace talks.

The Syrian opposition's main political body on Tuesday urged rebel groups to cooperate with "sincere regional efforts" to reach a ceasefire deal but that it had not been invited to any conference, referring to the Kazakhstan meeting.

Meanwhile, air strikes carried out by unidentified aircraft killed at least 22 civilians, including 10 children, in a village held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, a monitor said yesterday.