Assad fate open World powers leave

GENEVA: International powers agreed yesterday that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the bloodshed there but left open the question of what part President Bashar Al Assad might play in the process.

Peace envoy Kofi Annan said after talks in Geneva that the government should include members of Assad's administration and the Syrian opposition to pave the way for free elections.

"It is for the people to come to a political agreement but time is running out," Annan said.

"We need rapid steps to reach agreement. The conflict must be resolved through peaceful dialogue and negotiations."

The Geneva talks had been billed as a last-ditch effort to halt the worsening violence in Syria but hit obstacles as Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, opposed Western and Arab insistence that he must quit the scene.

The final communiquŽ said the transitional government "could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent".

But in a victory for Russian diplomacy, it omitted language contained in a previous draft which explicitly said it "would exclude from government those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardise stability and reconciliation".

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was "delighted" with the result as it meant no foreign solution was being imposed on Syria.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it sent a clear message to Assad that he must step down. "Assad will still have to go," Clinton said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad and his close associates could not lead any transition. Accountability for war crimes must be part of such a process, he said.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 people had been killed across the country yesterday.

Highlighting the deteriorating situation on the ground, Syrian government forces pushed their way into Douma on the outskirts of Damascus yesterday after weeks of siege and shelling.

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