President Bashar Assad says Syria will start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention banning such weapons.

US secretary of state John Kerry has arrived in Geneva to test the seriousness of a Russian proposal to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

Syrian government troops trying to relieve a besieged military base in the country’s north-west ambushed a rebel checkpoint today, killing at least 12 opposition fighters, activists said.

Syrian rebels have freed 21 UN peacekeepers and have handed them to Jordanian authorities, according to an international peace envoy.

The Syrian military has bombarded the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country, according to activists.

The president of the United Nations Security Council said important developments were under way in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the 21-month war in Syria and there could be another US-Russia meeting with international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi next week.

Russia is seeking to revive last summer’s peace plan for Syria in talks with a senior Syrian diplomat and an international envoy, according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.

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.

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria is meeting with the Chinese foreign minister to solicit support from Beijing in international efforts to ending Syria’s civil war.

A Syrian warplane flattened a three-storey building, suspected rebels detonated a deadly car bomb and both sides traded gunfire in hotspots across the country, leaving a United Nations-backed holiday truce in tatters on its second day.

Syrian troops have shelled rebel-held areas and clashed with anti-government gunmen in several parts of the country despite an internationally mediated ceasefire, according to activists.

It is being hailed as a miracle in a conflict that has seen endless misery.

Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting marred a shaky holiday truce today in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand president Bashar Assad’s removal.

A car bomb has exploded in Damascus, causing a number of casualties, according to Syria’s state-run media.

Fighting raged near a military base in Syria’s north as a ceasefire in the bloody civil war was set begin on Friday at dawn, activists said, illustrating the difficulty of enforcing even a limited truce coinciding with a Muslim holiday.

The Syrian government and some rebel leaders have agreed to a ceasefire during the forthcoming Muslim four-day holiday.

The leader of the main Syrian opposition group said today that the chances of a truce proposed by the UN for a Muslim holiday this week are slim, partly because the plan is too vague.

A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus yesterday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria’s civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels.

Democratic uprisings across the Arab world and the Palestinians’ bid for UN membership sparked hope and excitement at last year’s meeting of world leaders.

New UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said that the death toll in Syria is "staggering" and the destruction "catastrophic".

Troops and tanks swept into a restive town near Damascus yesterday in an assault aimed at crushing opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, whose struggle for survival has dragged Syria into an increasingly bloody war.

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and long-time UN diplomat, has agreed to replace former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria, the United Nations has announced.

The Security Council has agreed to end the UN military observer mission in Syria in the face of an escalating civil war.

A Syrian warplane crashed in flames in eastern Syria in disputed circumstances yesterday as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces pursued their drive to quell rebels in Aleppo and elsewhere.

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly denounced Syria’s crackdown and demanded the lockdown of its chemical and biological weapons.

The UN General Assembly is preparing to denounce Syria for unleashing tanks, artillery, helicopters and warplanes on the people of Aleppo and Damascus, and demand that the Assad regime keep its chemical and biological weapons warehoused and under strict control.

Arab countries are pushing ahead with a symbolic United Nations General Assembly resolution that tells Syrian president Bashar Assad to resign and turn over power to a transitional government.

The future of the 300-strong United Nations observer mission in Syria was in limbo today after Russia and China again vetoed a Western-backed resolution aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad’s government to end the escalating civil war.

Russia and China have again vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution threatening non-military sanctions against Syria.

The massacre of at least 150 people in a Syrian village is being described by the EU as "an atrocity" and "a blatant violation" of a plan brokered by the UN-Arab League envoy.

International envoy Kofi Annan tried to breathe new life into his moribund peace efforts in Syria, saying he has reached a new framework with President Bashar Assad and would discuss it soon with rebel leaders.

The new head of Syria’s main opposition group has called for mass defections from a regime struggling to survive by carrying out massacres, as the death toll in the uprising topped 14,000.

Activists said pro-government militia men and security forces killed at least 78 people, including children, in Syria’s central province of Hama yesterday.

The UN's top human rights body has voted overwhelmingly to condemn Syria over the slaughter of more than 100 civilians last week.

The UN peacekeeping chief said today there are strong suspicions that pro-regime fighters were responsible for some of the 108 victims of a massacre in Syria, along with heavy weapons illegally fired by government forces.

European Union foreign ministers have agreed fresh sanctions against Syria and warned of more action to come if the regime fails to abide by a ceasefire.

International envoy Kofi Annan has told the United Nations Security Council that the situation in Syria is “bleak” and expressed alarm at reports that government troops are still carrying out military operations in towns where UN observers are not present.

Syrian government forces shelled the city of Homs yesterday, resident opposition activists and a rights activist said, as a six-person advance party of UN observers was due to arrive in Syria to monitor a ceasefire meant to start four days ago.

The United Nations Security Council will vote today on a resolution authorising the deployment of the first wave of military observers to monitor a ceasefire between the Syrian government and opposition fighters.

Syria has promised to stop fighting in time for the deadline for a ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan.

Activists are reporting fresh violence in different parts of Syria today less than 24 hours before a UN-brokered ceasefire is to take effect.

About 1,000 people have been killed by Syrian government forces in the last eight days, according to the country’s main opposition group.

Syria’s foreign minister has said the government has already withdrawn some forces from several cities, and stated that the UN-brokered ceasefire must start at the same time as the deployment of international observers.

Activists said Syrian forces attacked two towns today as a deadline passed for President Bashar Assad’s troops to start withdrawing from populated areas under an internationally brokered truce deal.