Doubts surround Geneva summit for Syria, Vatican denies ethnic cleaning claims

International mediator Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "optimistic" that ministerial crisis talks on Syria being held on Saturday would produce an acceptable outcome.
   
"I think we are going to have a good meeting tomorrow (Saturday). I am optimistic," Annan told Reuters TV in Geneva after Russia proposed changes to his plan for a national unity government. The talks would end "with an acceptable result", he said.
   
His spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said: "The talks are on course and the preparatory meeting is going ahead this morning (Friday)."

Diplomatic sources confirmed that United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan is fighting a battle secure a Geneva summit aimed at further discussing Syria on Saturday.                 

Russia proposed changes on Thursday to international mediator Kofi Annan's plan for a national unity government in Syria, despite initially supporting it, but the United States, Britain and France rejected the amendments, Western diplomats said.                  

The suggested changes are related to Moscow's refusal to support the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.                

Russia and the other permanent U.N. Security Council members told Annan this week they support a transitional Cabinet that could include government and opposition members but would "exclude ... those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation," according to Annan's proposal.            

Moscow has also said it is not insisting that Assad must remain in power at all costs, but that any decision on whether or not he should step down should come from the Syrian people, not from outside pressure or military intervention, as happened last year in Libya.    

For their part, the United States, Britain and France have said that Assad is responsible for the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 10,000 people, is no longer fit to govern. Russia and China, however, reject what they describe as Western calls for "regime change."                

Fighting continued across Syria after an attack on the capital, Damascus. Footage from amateur video released on Thursday afternoon showed shelling in Douma City, near to the capital, as well as in the previous hotspots of Homs City and Rastan.                

Rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.           

Activists say more than 14,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.               

A General in the Syrian Free army's opposition stated that Syrian state forces have mobilized about 170 tanks to the north of the city of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey.    

Meanwhile the media office of the Vatican denied information released by an alleged Bishop who had said that Christians were undergoing ethnic cleaning and religious persecution at the hands of the Syrian opposition in Homs.

AP/REUTERS/LBCI