Peace envoy Brahimi meets Syrian President Assad

Damascus: International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday, hoping to breathe life into stalled peace efforts, 18 months into Syria's deadly conflict.

State television said Mr Brahimi, on his first visit since being appointed earlier this month, went into the meeting with the Syrian leader but it gave no immediate details.

Mr Brahimi, a veteran Algerian troubleshooter, has also held talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and members of the officially tolerated opposition since he arrived in the Syrian capital on Thursday.

The envoy warned on arrival that the conflict is "getting worse," as underlined by the daily bloodshed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from a network of activists on the ground, said 132 people were killed in violence yesterday, including 100 civilians, 18 of whom died in the capital.

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Mr Brahimi held talks on Friday with Syrian opposition figures who said he was bringing "new ideas" to the peace effort, as blasts rocked Damascus and regime air strikes targeted rebel areas in the northern city of Aleppo.

He met with opposition groups tolerated by Assad's regime such as the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, which groups Arab nationalists, Kurds and socialists.

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"We told Mr Brahimi... of our support for his efforts to resolve the crisis by ending the violence and killings, providing medical care and releasing political prisoners," Hassan Abdel Azim, the bloc spokesman, told reporters.

Mr Brahimi will "listen to the opposition and officials and crystalise new ideas and a plan that could succeed," he said after the talks in a Damascus hotel, adding the peace initiative of his predecessor Kofi Annan would be amended.

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