Syria threatens to quit Geneva talks

The Syrian government delegation has threatened to quit peace talks in Geneva if 'serious' discussions do not begin by Saturday.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem issued the threat on Syrian state media after his team held talks with UN negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi.

Mr Brahimi is due to meet the Syrian opposition separately later on Friday.

Correspondents say the talks have been troubled from the start, as both sides have deeply entrenched positions.

Syria's civil conflict has claimed well over 100,000 lives, the UN says.

The violence has also driven 9.5 million people from their homes, creating a major humanitarian crisis within Syria and for its neighbours.

Fighting continued on the ground on Friday, with government forces bombing rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This is the third day of the Geneva conference, but the first in which negotiations get under way in earnest.

There were initial hopes of a joint meeting between the two sides, but later it emerged that Mr Brahimi would hold talks with each separately.

Both sides blame the other for this setback.

The Damascus delegation complained about recent remarks made by the opposition chief, Ahmed Jarba, who said President Bashar al-Assad and his regime were a 'political corpse' that could not be part of Syria's future.

For its part, the opposition said it would not meet government delegates face-to-face until they signed a written commitment accepting the Geneva communique drafted 18 months ago, which calls for a transitional government.

The talks are ostensibly about the implementation of the communique, but the views of the government and the opposition are so diametrically opposed that Friday's discussions may get no further than preliminary attempts to set a common agenda, the BBC's Bridget Kendall in Geneva reports.

She says even that may prove difficult: The government is expected to insist on the importance of fighting what it sees as terrorism, while the opposition wants a high priority to be put on the removal of Mr Assad.

But analysts are still hopeful that at least some progress can be made.

While the two sides are opposed on many issues, they have both indicated a willingness to talk about concrete steps like local ceasefires, prisoner exchanges and establishing safe corridors for the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid.

Assad's role

One of the main sticking points between the government and the rebels is the role of Bashar al-Assad.

Geneva Communique

A UN-backed meeting in 2012 issued the document and urged Syria to:

Form transitional governing body Start national dialogue Review constitution and legal system Hold free and fair elections

The opposition demands his removal from office as a condition for peace.

It is supported in this by many key foreign observers: US Secretary of State John Kerry has called Mr Assad 'a one-man super-magnet for terrorism'.

But Syrian officials have flatly rejected any suggestion of Mr Assad stepping down, and he has even suggested he will run for president again in elections due this year.

The Syrian government also has its supporters: Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has told the BBC that nobody other than Mr Assad can run Syria at the moment.