Russia invites Syrian opposition for talks

Russia, one of the few powers to maintain links with the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has sent an invitation for talks to the head of the opposition Syria National Coalition, Russian deputy foreign minister said.

Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Friday that the talks with National Coalition head Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib could take place in Moscow or a foreign location like Geneva or Cairo.

"The invitation has been handed over, it is in the hands of Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib," Bogdanov said.

Russia has so far strongly criticised moves by Western and anti-Assad Arab states to recognise the National Coalition as a legitimate representatives of the Syrian people since the group was formed last month.

Yet Russia is also involved in a frantic round of year-end diplomacy seeking to end the crisis.

A Syrian deputy foreign minister visited Moscow on Thursday and Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, is to meet UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in the Russian capital on Saturday.

Russia had already indicated it was ready to hold talks with the Syrian opposition who until now have regarded Moscow with suspicion over its refusal to break ties with the Assad regime.

Bogdanov also said he expected there to be a new three-way meeting between Brahimi and US and Russian representatives on the Syrian crisis in January.

"We will hear what Lakhdar Brahimi says about the Syrian crisis and likely there will be a decision on a new 'triple B' meeting with Lakhdar Brahimi, [US Deputy Secretary of State] William Burns and Mikhail Bogdanov," he said.

"But this will be in January, after the [Russian New Year] holidays," Bogdanov said.

Brahimi on Thursday called for a "real change" in Syria and the installation of a transitional government with full powers until elections can be held.

"We need to form a government with all powers ... which assumes power during a period of transition. That transition period will end with elections," Brahimi told reporters.

He did not specify a date for the envisaged elections, either presidential or parliamentary depending on what could be agreed. He also made no mention on the fate of Assad, whose current term expires in 2014.

"The transition period should not lead to the collapse of the state and its institutions," Brahimi said, adding the initiative was incomplete.

"We prefer... a project whose facilitation the parties have agreed upon, and, if they do not, the last solution is going to the [UN] Security Council which will make a binding resolution."

Brahimi, who while in Damascus has held talks with Assad as well as with opposition groups tolerated by the regime, replaced former UN chief Kofi Annan after his dramatic resignation in August over what he said was the failure of major powers to back his own six-point peace plan.

A diplomat at the UN Security Council said on Wednesday the veteran Algerian troubleshooter had received no support from either side since arriving in Syria on Sunday.