nternational envoy Kofi Annan expressed “grave concern” to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday over the government’s deadly crackdown, the U.N. said, adding the men will meet again Sunday.

The former U.N. secretary general “put several proposals on the table regarding stopping the violence and the killing, access for humanitarian agencies and the ICRC, release of detainees, and the start of an inclusive political dialogue,” the United Nations said in a statement.

It gave no details of the proposals, but the U.N. and International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) have made repeated pleas for access to the cities where the U.N. says more than 7,500 people have died in the past year.

Annan, on his first trip to Damascus since being named joint envoy by the U.N. and Arab League, “expressed grave concern at the situation in Syria and urged the president to take concrete steps to end the current crisis,” said the statement.

The envoy and Syrian president will meet again Sunday, the statement added.

Talks went ahead as the Syrian army pursued its offensive against opponents, storming the rebel city of Idlib, according to rights group monitors.

Annan described his first talks with Assad as “candid and comprehensive.”

He went on to meet “opposition leaders and young activists, as well as prominent businessmen and businesswomen,” the statement said.

Annan will go on from Damascus to Doha, Qatar on Sunday.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos left Damascus on Friday after a three day visit when she went to the city of Homs and said much of it had been “devastated”. She also made proposals to seek more access to Syrian cities.

The United Nations estimates Syrian security forces have killed over 7,500 people. Syria said in December that “terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.

A Russian diplomat said this week Assad was battling al-Qaeda-backed militants, including 15,000 foreign fighters who would seize cities if Syrian troops withdrew.

The Syrian opposition denies any al-Qaeda role in the uprising, but Islamists are among rebels who have taken up arms against Assad under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.






(Reuters)