Russia and US in Geneva talks over future of Syria

Russian and American diplomats have met in Geneva to discuss the future of Syria with the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who insisted the meeting did not imply Moscow had softened in its support for the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Lavrov said the 'brainstorming session' involving Brahimi with senior officials from Washington and Moscow, had been agreed last week when Lavrov, Brahimi and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, met in Dublin.

But Lavrov stressed that the agreement to meet over the deeply divisive issue did not amount to Russian acknowledgement that Assad's fall was inevitable.

Lavrov was referring to a joint statement agreed to by global powers in Geneva in June, in which the deep differences between them were papered over by an ambiguous use of words.