US and Russia plan Syria talks

U.S. and Russian officials agreed on Friday on the need to convene a long-delayed Syrian peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible, but they offered no concrete plan to bring the warring government and rebels to the table.

Other plans for peace talks have fizzled before, but one humanitarian group described its reaction to the news as "cautiously optimistic."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after five hours of political and security meetings in Washington that officials from the two countries will meet again by the end of the month to prepare for the Syria talks.

The discussion between Kerry and Lavrov took place despite President Barack Obama's decision this week to cancel a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Moscow's decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden.

Lavrov told reporters after five hours of political and security meetings in Washington that officials from the two countries will meet again by the end of the month to prepare for the Syria talks.

Asked whether this conference would in fact ever happen, Lavrov said that Russia already had won the agreement of its ally the Syrian government to send a delegation to Geneva without any preconditions.

"John Kerry assured me that the opposition would be persuaded to come to Geneva without any preconditions on the basis of reaching agreement with the government," said Lavrov.

A U.S. official briefing reporters after the talks, which also included Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, said Washington was working closely with the Syrian opposition but the onus was on Damascus.

"The test is whether the Syrian government will come to Geneva prepared to negotiate the transition of full executive powers to a transitional governing body," the U.S. official said.

The humanitarian group Oxfam America said it was "cautiously optimistic" about Lavrov's statements, but that it had heard talk of peace talks before.

"We have seen similar promises come and go without any noticeable action," said Shannon Scribner, the group's humanitarian policy manager, adding that "again, no firm date or plans are in place."

Moscow and Washington have been trying since May to organize an international peace conference to bring an end to the violence in Syria that has killed some 100,000 people in two years.