International mediator Kofi Annan said on Saturday the Syrian government and opposition must cooperate with a plan for a transitional government, which he hoped would bring real results within a year.    

He said a "strong transformational wind" was blowing and could not be resisted for long. He said the new government would be formed by discussion, negotiation and mutual consent, and the "Action Group" on Syria that met in Geneva on Saturday would reconvene as necessary.    

For her part, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly endorsed a new international plan for a political transition in Syria, saying it would send a clear message to President Bashar al-Assad that he must step down.    

"Assad will still have to go," Clinton told a news conference after international mediator Kofi Annan announced that major powers including Russia and the United States had reached a deal that calls for a transitional unity government to take power in Syria.    

"What we have done here is to strip away the fiction that he and those with blood on their hands can stay in power," Clinton said. Russia's Lavrov delighted at Syria meeting outcome    

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was "delighted" at the outcome of crisis talks on Syria held in Geneva on Saturday and that the document agreed on did not imply Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down.    

Lavrov told a news conference there were no preconditions to Syria's transition process and no attempt to exclude any group from a proposed national unity government. The key point was that the agreement did not attempt to impose a process on Syria, he said. Annan says he expects Assad to cooperate with Syria plan    

Russia, the U.S. and other major powers have begun on Saturday closed-door talks in Geneva in order to find a political solution for Syria and ending 16 months of brutal violence.              

International envoy Kofi Annan invited the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council  Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.  along with other envoys for Europe, the Middle East, China, the Arab League and representatives of three Arab countries.          

In his opening remarks, Annan warned of an international crisis of grave severity that now looms and threatens regional spillover. He called on world powers to reach unity on Syria to allow for a peaceful solution to conflict adding that world powers must agree on guidelines and principles for a Syrian-led political transition that meets legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.

For his part British Foreign Minister William Hague called for Security Council to negotiate resolution next week to set out sanctions on Syria. “None of us seek military action” he said. He continued that Syrian President and closest associates cannot lead transition process in Syria, adding that accountability for criminal acts must be part of transition process in Syria. Hague added that UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon warned Geneva talks that if Syria crisis is not resolved, he would need to withdraw UN observers.

High Representative of the European Union Catherine Ashton:" We are hopeful we are going yo rach a good solution."

Russia's determination to preserve its last remaining ally in the Middle East collides head-on with U.S. and other Western powers' desire to replace Syrian President Bashar Assad with a democracy.