Syrian rebels and government forces have started observing a 10-day truce in the last rebel-held area of the central city of Homs, marking another setback for opposition fighters, activists said.

Two trucks carrying food and medical supplies into rebel-held neighbourhoods in the central Syrian city of Homs turned back under heavy fire, leaving four paramedics wounded as a ceasefire faltered.

Tense negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition focused on the transfer of power and helping besieged parts of the central city of Homs as they entered their fifth day.

The first face-to-face meeting between Syria’s government and the opposition hoping to overthrow president Bashar Assad started and ended after barely 30 minutes today.

The first face-to-face meeting between Syria’s government and the opposition hoping to overthrow president Bashar Assad has started.

Peace talks to carve a path out of Syria’s civil war got off to a rocky start yesterday as a bitter clash over Bashar Assad’s future threatened to collapse negotiations even before they had begun.

With stakes high and expectations low, Syria’s government and its opponents sit down face to face at an international peace conference this week for the first time – muscled to the negotiating table by foreign powers which fear the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings may engulf the entire region in sectarian war.

Two weeks ahead of an international peace conference on Syria, the country’s main Western-backed opposition group stands on the brink of collapse.

The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group has said it intends to join peace talks with the Syrian government if conditions are met.

Syrian government forces have reached an agreement with local officials of a vulnerable Sunni village in a region dominated by President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect to end hours of deadly shelling in exchange for the surrender of dozens of opposition fighters, an activist group said today.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has received an “initial declaration” from Syria outlining its weapons programme.

Syria's main western-backed opposition group has criticised al-Qaida-linked gunmen and their expanding influence in the country, saying the jihadis seek to establish an Islamic state.

The US, Britain and France have said they believe that the Assad regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.

The US State Department has said it is cancelling a meeting with Russian diplomats on Syria this week.

Snipers have fired on the UN convoy carrying a team investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but failed to deter them from their mission today.

The United Nations yesterday demanded Syria give its chemical weapons experts immediate access to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds just a few miles from the UN team’s hotel.

France’s foreign minister says the international community may have to use force if it is proven that Syria used chemical weapons in an attack the opposition says killed more than 100 people.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged international supporters of the Syrian regime to "wake up to...its murderous and barbaric nature" as the United Nations Security Council met to discuss reports of a deadly chemical weapon attack.

Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants are tightening their grip on a key rebel district in central Syria, activists say.

Syria’s President Bashar Assad said his opponents have “used up all their tools” and failed to overthrow his regime. The remarks came as Western-backed Syrian opposition figures gathered in Turkey for talks on electing a new leadership.

Syria’s main opposition bloc has urged the European Union to quickly supply rebels fighting president Bashar Assad’s forces with sophisticated weapons and help them overthrow his regime.

The Syrian government has agreed in principle to take part in an international conference in Geneva next month aimed at ending the country’s civil war, its foreign minister said yesterday.

The Syrian government has agreed to a conference on the country’s future proposed by Russia and the United States, Russia’s foreign ministry said today.

Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border yesterday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air.

The Syrian military today launched an offensive to retake a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, a government official said, as activists reported that regime airstrikes and shelling of the town have killed at least 16 people, including opposition fighters.

The UN General Assembly is poised to approve an Arab-backed resolution calling for a political transition in Syria and strongly condemning president Bashar Assad’s regime for its escalating use of heavy weapons, UN diplomats said.

Syria’s information minister has said Damascus needs more details about a proposed US-Russian initiative before it decides whether to attend.

President Bashar Assad’s regime has committed a “large-scale massacre” in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast, killing at least 50 people, according to activists.

President Bashar Assad’s regime has committed a “large-scale massacre” in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast, killing at least 50 people, according to activists.

Six days of fighting in a Damascus suburb has killed more than a hundred people and possibly many more, activists said today, in what the government also acknowledged may be a dramatic spike in the rising death toll in Syria.

The US said today that it will double its assistance to Syria’s opposition as the rebels vowed to step up their two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad’s regime.

A top rebel military leader has been injured and possibly killed by a bomb attached to his car, Syrian activists said today.

The leader of the Western-based Syrian opposition coalition has resigned, citing frustrations with the body’s ability to advance the fight against President Bashar Assad.

The United Nations will investigate the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, which would be “a crime against humanity”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced

Syria’s main opposition group has demanded a full international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country’s north.

Syria’s main opposition coalition began a push yesterday to form an interim government to provide services to people living in parts of the country now controlled by rebel forces.

Arab foreign ministers have offered the Syrian opposition coalition the country’s seat at the Arab League on condition that it first forms a representative executive council.

The United States will provide the Syrian opposition with an additional $60m (€45.8m) in assistance and will for the first time provide non-lethal aid like food and medical supplies to rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.

Syrian rebels used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy near Aleppo today, and clashed with government troops protecting the strategic installation.

Syrian warplanes and artillery have hit targets near Damascus International Airport, following a bloody day of attacks in the Syrian capital that killed dozens and struck deep into President Bashar Assad’s seat of power.

President Bashar Assad called on Syrians to defend their country against religious extremists seeking to destroy the nation, dismissing any prospect of dialogue with the “murderous criminals” he says are behind the uprising.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad yesterday sent a senior diplomat to Moscow yesterday to discuss proposals by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to end the conflict convulsing his country, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

More than 100 countries have recognised a new Syrian opposition coalition, opening the way for greater humanitarian assistance - and possibly military aid - for the forces battling president Bashar Assad.

Syria's increasingly powerful Islamist rebel factions have rejected the country's new Western-backed opposition coalition and unilaterally declared an Islamic state in the key battleground of Aleppo.