International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday that he does not expect to achieve anything substantive in the first round of Syria talks ending on Friday but hoped for a more productive second round starting about a week later.
He voiced hope that Russia and the United States would exert greater influence over the two sides to bridge "quite large" gaps, adding that the United Nations and Syria's government were still negotiating access for aid to the rebel-held Old City of Homs.
"To be blunt, I do not expect that we will achieve anything substantive. I am very happy that we are still talking, but the ice is breaking slowly, but it is breaking," Brahimi told a news conference after meeting the government and opposition for preliminary talks on a transitional governing body proposed in a 2012 roadmap.
This comes as Russian and US experts agreed to increase pressure on the Syrian government and opposition delegations to reach a compromise at talks in Geneva, state-run RIA news agency cited a diplomatic source as saying.
"We agreed that we need to first of all strengthen cooperation with each other and increase pressure so that (the sides) more actively work together and seek a compromise," the source was quoted as saying.
Earlier, the two Syrian delegations at peace talks in Geneva have agreed to use the "Geneva communique", a document agreed by international powers in June 2012, as the basis for peace talks, an opposition spokesman Louay al-Safi said, in an apparent step forward for the talks.
"We have agreed that Geneva 1 is the basis of the talks," he said, referring to the communique agreed in Geneva in June 2012. "The regime has accepted but it wants the transitional governing body to be discussed at the end. We want it at the beginning... we want to discuss its seize and responsibilities."
Syrian state television also said the government delegation announced its "full readiness" to discuss the Geneva 1 communique, which calls for a transitional government, "paragraph by paragraph" at peace talks.
For more details, watch Dalal Abou Haydar's full report in the video above
"The Syrian government delegation announced its full readiness and since the beginning to put Geneva on the table and discuss it paragraph by paragraph from the first article," a news bulletin said.
Syrian negotiators have resumed talks over the country's future a day after cutting short their discussions over a US decision to resume aid to the opposition.
The government and opposition delegates met with the UN-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday, but chances for a breakthrough before everyone goes home Friday appear almost nil as both sides continue to blame each other for an impasse.
A deal to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged city of Homs remains stalled, with the Syrian delegation demanding assurances the U.S. aid will not go to "armed and terrorist groups" in the central city.
The negotiations aimed at ending Syria's three-year-old conflict began Friday in Geneva and Brahimi has said both sides were willing to continue despite lack of progress.
AP/REUTERS
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