International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Friday Syrian government and opposition delegations will remain in Geneva throughout the weekend for talks, but said the process would not be easy.
"Both parties will be here tomorrow...they will not leave on Saturday or Sunday," Brahimi told a news conference after separate meetings with the two delegations.
"We do expect some bumps on the road. We wanted these delegations nominated months ago to prepare things better," he said, adding that while both sides agreed that a June 2012 communique should be the basis for the negotiations, "there are different interpretations on some of those items".
Earlier, he said that Syria's government and opposition have agreed to meet in the same room on Saturday.
"Tomorrow we have agreed that we shall meet in same room," Brahimi told a news conference after he held separate meetings with government and opposition delegations in Geneva.
"The discussions I had with the two parties were encouraging," he said, adding that negotiations would be based on a June 2012 statement by world powers which called for the two sides to agree on the establishment of the transitional body.
"I think the two sides understand that very well and accept it," Brahimi said.
This comes as he has started talks with a Syrian opposition delegation at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.
He had been due to bring both sides together on Friday to launch talks aimed at ending nearly three years of conflict in Syria, but the opposition demanded that the government first endorse an international accord calling for a transitional governing body to be established.
Brahimi also ended talks with a Syrian government delegation after less than an hour, two security officials said.
Earlier, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was quoted by state
television on Friday as telling international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi
that if no serious work sessions were held by Saturday, the government
delegation would leave.
"If no serious work sessions are held by (Saturday), the official Syrian delegation will leave Geneva due to the other side's lack of seriousness or preparedness," state television quoted Moualem as saying, citing a United Nations source.
This comes as Syria's opposition leader laid out his demands for talks on ending his country's civil war, calling for the creation of a transitional government that does not include President Bashar al-Assad.
Ahmed Jarba told reporters in Geneva that he was looking to a future without Assad.
In a defiant speech, Jarba said the international community now realized that Assad cannot stay in power.
"We have started to look into the future without him. Assad and all of his regime is in the past now. Nobody should have any doubt that the head of the regime is finished. This regime is dead," Jarba said.
Moscow, Assad's major backer, had given assurances that it was not "holding on" to Assad, Jarba said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry also said there was no sign Assad was ready to quit, although he insisted the Syrian leader had no place in his country's future.
"This is a man who has committed war crimes and still somehow wants to claim legitimacy to be able to govern the country," Kerry said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.
But Kerry said there could be a place for officials from Assad's government in a transitional government as long as they "do not have blood on their hands".
The opposing views of Assad's future underlined the difficulties facing the talks, the first time the government and opposition sides have met since the fighting began.
Jarba said the negotiations would be long and difficult, and would look at all the "core issues" as a package deal, including the creation of a transitional governing body.
"This is the basis of our negotiations and we will demand it," he said.
A Western diplomat, setting expectations for Friday's talks very low, said the aim would be "to give some momentum to the process and avoid either side walking out".
Few expect the peace talks to result in a breakthrough to end the war, since Islamist fighters who disdain the Western and Arab-backed opposition are not present at the talks, and nor is Iran, Assad's main regional backer.
But officials hope they can salvage the process by starting with more modest, practical measures to ease the plight of millions of people on the ground, especially in areas cut off from international aid.
More than 130,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting, nearly a third of Syria's 22 million people have been driven from their homes, and half are in need of international aid, including hundreds of thousands in areas cut off by fighting.
The main negotiations, expected to last up to a week, are due to begin at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
The talks remain fragile, however, with both sides threatening to pull out. The government says it will not discuss removing Assad, while the opposition says it will not stay unless Assad's removal is the basis for talks.
Among the many difficulties with the process, the opposition delegation does not include the al Qaeda-linked Sunni Islamist militant groups who control much of the territory in rebel hands and have denounced those attending the talks as traitors.
Rebel ranks have been divided, with hundreds killed in recent weeks in battles between rival factions and the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on fighters to unite.
REUTERS
To watch Bassam Abou Zeid's report, please click on the VIDEO above
Next
2025 in Lebanon: LBCI reflects on a year of challenges, coverage, and coexistence