Government troops fought back rebels near the airport of battle-scarred Aleppo, Syria’s state media said today, in the first official acknowledgement that combat had neared a strategic gateway to the country’s largest city.

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.

Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, US defence chiefs say.

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.

Kofi Annan delivered blistering criticism of world powers’ failure to unite over Syria’s escalating violence as he submitted his resignation as special envoy to the country.

The EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has called for a rapid appointment by the UN and the Arab League of a successor to Kofi Annan.

Kofi Annan has submitted his resignation as special envoy to Syria, saying he plans to step down on August 31.

Kofi Annan has resigned as the UN - Arab League envoy to Syria.

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 government of Bashar al-Assad has declared victory in a hard-fought battle for Syria’s capital Damascus, and pounded rebels who control parts of the country’s largest city Aleppo.

Arab nations have said they will go to the UN General Assembly and seek approval of a new resolution on Syria.

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 United Nations will vote today on a new British-crafted Syria resolution after a last-minute delay failed to get key Western nations and Russia to agree on measures to end the soaring violence.

The UN Security Council has delayed a vote on a new Syria resolution until tomorrow in a last-minute effort to get key Western nations and Russia to reach agreement on measures to end the escalating violence.

Russia remained at loggerheads with the US and its European allies ahead of a United Nations Security Council vote tonight on a new Syria resolution.

Syrian rebels fired grenades at tanks and troops while regime armour shelled areas of Damascus, sending terrified families fleeing the most sustained and widespread fighting in the capital since the start of the uprising 16 months ago.

About 220 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed in a village in the rebellious Hama region when it was bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks then stormed by militiamen who slaughtered some families, opposition sources said.

International envoy Kofi Annan says he is "shocked and appalled" by reports of a mass killing in the Syrian village of Tremseh.

International envoy Kofi Annan today urged the UN Security Council to send a message to the Syrian government and the opposition that there will be “consequences” if they do not comply with demands for an immediate ceasefire, a UN diplomat said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has suggested ending his country’s conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have suffered the worst violence, international mediator Kofi Annan has said.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has agreed to a new UN-brokered peace plan focusing on containing the most violent areas of the country, then expanding to the entire nation, international envoy Kofi Annan said.

International envoy Kofi Annan has warned of a disaster if his peace plan for Syria fails.

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.

Russia has signalled that it will not sign new weapons contracts with Syria until the situation there calms down.

International envoy Kofi Annan raised hopes of a revived peace effort in Syria today, saying he has reached a framework with president Bashar Assad and would hold talks with rebel leaders.

International envoy Kofi Annan is holding talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus today in a last-ditch effort to salvage his peace plan.

Syria’s president has accused the United States of fuelling a violent uprising against his government.

UN special envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

UN special envoy Kofi Annan has acknowledged that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed.

The United States and its European and Arab partners will threaten the Assad regime with international sanctions if it fails to adopt a Syrian peace plan that includes a new interim government, American officials said on the eve of an 80-nation conference.

An international conference has accepted a UN-brokered peace plan for Syria, but left open whether the country’s president could be part of a transitional government.

Syria envoy Kofi Annan has warned that if nations trying to end the country’s violence fail to act they face an international crisis of “grave severity”.

US and Russian diplomats have held talks on Syria ahead of today’s international conference that aims to ease Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.

The chief of UN observers in Syria has said their mission is being suspended because of escalating violence in the country.

The head of the UN observers in Syria says that the growing violence is derailing their mission and could prompt the unarmed force to pull out.

Britain is not seeking foreign military intervention in Syria, but is focused on finding a peaceful resolution to the current unrest, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said today.

UN monitors said Syrian helicopters fired on rebel strongholds north of Homs yesterday and called for “immediate and unfettered access” to conflict zones where they had heard many women and children were trapped.

International envoy Kofi Annan said today he was “gravely concerned” about the latest violence in Syria, citing shelling of opposition areas in Homs and reports of mortar, helicopter and tank attacks near the coast.

Damascus residents have spoken about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began 15 months ago.

United Nations observers smelled the stench of burned corpses and saw body parts scattered around a Syrian farming hamlet that was the site of a massacre in which nearly 80 men, women and children were reported to have been killed.