Battered Aleppo takes last breath

As Syrian warplanes continued to pound Aleppo's last rebel-held districts, the US said American and Russian officials would meet this weekend in a bid to save the city from "complete" destruction.

With the fighting resuming after a brief respite, the UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire and urgent aid deliveries, in a resolution adopted by a strong majority.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's key ally, Russia, vowed that the assault would not end until the rebels left Aleppo.

As regime forces advance into Syria's second city, conditions for those who haven't fled are appalling.

Thousands have left their neighbourhoods, trying to find refuge in diminishing enclaves of rebel territory, or government strongholds. Bombed and starved, with little clean water, the situation is desperate.

The air strikes have made it difficult for residents to leave their houses to collect water from the wells and bread from the bakeries.

"I went out for just five minutes to try to find food, but I saw two helicopters and a warplane in the skies right above me and got scared and ran back in," said Monther Etakyt.

"So many people are crammed into small neighbourhoods. When a bomb hits, four times as many people are being killed."

It is unclear how many civilians remain. The UN had estimated there were 200,000 in eastern Aleppo before the latest offensive. Between 30,000 and 50,000 have fled to the government-held western side of the city and to opposition territory in the north. As many as 150,000 could still be trapped.

A military victory in Aleppo for the government now seems inevitable.

Russia and the US have been attempting to agree on a truce. The US is trying to negotiate humanitarian evacuations while Moscow has demanded a complete withdrawal of the rebels, who have vowed to fight on. In what seemed to be a gesture of goodwill, Russia announced a temporary halt in military activity to allow the evacuation of civilians.

Assad, however, made clear in an interview that there would be no compromise.

Asked about the possibility of a truce, he said: "It's practically non-existent."

He said victory in the city would leave the rebels with "no cards left to play" and would be a "huge step" to ending the war.

The city is central to the fate of the conflict because of its symbolic and strategic importance.

A rebel defeat could lead to a domino effect, with the rebels splintered and scattered.

"A defeat in Aleppo will leave the Syrian opposition at a dead end, not just because it will have lost its most important piece of real estate, but because the remaining rebel strongholds are of little use as platforms to reverse the tide of war," wrote Aron Lund, a fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East programme.

Rebel forces will be faced with the reality that the president controls the country's four largest cities as well as the strategic coast.