After months of sharp differences, Russia and the United States have agreedto push both sides in Syria to find an end to the bloodshed, offering to holdan international conference in search of peace.
Syrian rebels meanwhile said they had seized four Filipino peacekeepers inthe Golan Heights, the second time in two months that UN troops have beenabducted in the tense ceasefire zone between Syria and Israel.
In talks that stretched late into Tuesday night, US Secretary of State JohnKerry met first for more than two hours with President Vladimir Putin and thenfor a further three with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both theSyria government and opposition groups to find a political solution,"Lavrov told reporters at a concluding news conference that ended aftermidnight.
Lavrov and Kerry said they hoped they could convene an internationalconference by the end of May to build on the Geneva accord agreed by worldpowers last June for a peaceful solution in Syria.
The Geneva agreement, which was never implemented, set out a path toward atransitional government without ever spelling out the fate of President Basharal-Assad.
The six-point accord - negotiated by the last UN-Arab League envoy to SyriaKofi Annan -- "should be the road map... by which the people of Syria canfind their way to the new Syria and in which the bloodshed, the killing, themassacres can end", Kerry said.
"The alternative is that there's even more violence, the alternative isthat Syria heads even closer to the abyss, if not over the abyss and intochaos," Kerry warned, of a conflict that has already claimed over 70,000lives.
And in what appeared to be a major concession to Russian concerns of instabilityin its Middle East ally, Kerry seemed to soften the US stand on Assad's future.
Washington has long insisted Assad must go.
But Kerry told reporters that only the Syrian regime and the opposition candetermine the make-up of a transitional government to shepherd the war-tornnation towards democratic elections.
"It's impossible for me as an individual to understand how Syria couldpossibly be governed in the future by the man who has committed the things thatwe know have taken place," Kerry said as he wrapped up his first visit inoffice to Russia.
"But I'm not going to decide that tonight, and I'm not going to decidethat in the end."
Lavrov said both Russia and the United States were ready to use all theirresources to bring "the government and opposition to the negotiatingtable".
Russia has long accused the West of worsening the Syria conflict by seekingto topple the Assad regime.
The US and other Western states have in turn accused Russia of failing touse its influence with the regime to halt the bloodshed and keeping up militarydeliveries to Assad.
In one of the first reactions to the Russian-US accord, Lakhdar Brahimi, theUN-Arab League envoy for Syria, described the deal as a "very significantfirst step".
The United Nations said the four abducted peacekeepers were seized by anunidentified armed group while they were patrolling in the Golan Heights, andthat efforts were under way to secure their release.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack, which cameafter Syrian rebels seized 21 Filipino peacekeepers for four days in March inthe same ceasefire zone.
The Philippines said the represented a "gross violation" ofinternational law and urged the UN Security Council to "use its influencefor the early and safe release" of the four.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday his country was notgetting involved in Syria's civil war, but insisted the Jewish state would notpermit the transfer of arms to Damascus ally Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Yaalon was speaking just days after two Israeli air strikes near Damascussent regional tensions soaring and as the United Nations protested about Israelwarplanes overflying Lebanon.
The raids struck several military targets in the early hours of Friday andSunday and may have been carried out by Israeli warplanes from Lebanese airspace.
Syria was cut off from the Internet on Tuesday, according to US tech firmsmonitoring Web traffic and the State Department.
The reasons were not immediately clear, but a similar blackout happened inNovember. According to activists, sudden communication cuts may occur beforemajor military offensives.
