Little sign of progress

Talks between the Syrian government and members of the tolerated opposition were set to end yesterday in Moscow with little sign of progress towards ending the spiralling conflict in the country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to open a final meeting between the two sides but opposition activists said there was little chance of a breakthrough after holding two days of talks with the delegation of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, headed the government delegation for four days of meetings with Russian mediators and opposition figures from the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change.

But the main Western-backed exiled Syrian opposition National Coalition stayed away, and another leading domestic opposition activist was stuck in Damascus due to a travel ban.

"We will meet for two hours but I do not think this will be enough to make any advances," opposition figure Samir Aita said.

"Yesterday Jaafari presented general points that include some that are not really acceptable to the opposition," Aita said, citing a condemnation of Jordanian but not Iranian involvement in Syria.

Moscow's latest attempt to bring government and opposition together comes amid continuing strikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, with Canada on Wednesday sending two F-18s to strike ISIS positions near the Syrian city of Raqqa.