Russia, Arab League urge Syria to accept opposition talk offer

Russia and the Arab League called on the Syrian government to accept an offer from the opposition to negotiate an end to the country's nearly two-year conflict.

"Concrete actions should follow those words," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He said Russia was ready to host any such meeting.

Lavrov was speaking at talks with an Arab delegation comprising the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi and foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait and Lebanon.

Al-Arabi urged Russia to use its influence on Syria to help end the country's conflict, which has claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people, according to UN estimates.

"Russia has very good connections with the regime in Damascus and we hope that it uses this tight relationship to convince the government that this crisis can only be ended peacefully, through dialogue," added al-Arabi.

Lavrov said there was no hope in a military solution.

"That's a path to nowhere, one that involves the extermination of the people," he told the Interfax news agency during the Russian-Arab forum in Moscow.

Moaz al-Khatib, the head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition, last month offered to hold talks with government officials without "blood on their hands."

His proposal has drawn criticism from members of the opposition group who insist there should be no negotiations with Damascus unless President Bashar al-Assad leaves power.

Al-Khatib said it was not a move to "surrender" but that his aim was to ease the suffering of the Syrian people.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem is expected in Moscow on February 25 for talks with Russian officials.

Al-Khatib will also visit Moscow later in the month, but will not meet with al-Moallem.

Russia and China have vetoed UN resolutions imposing sanctions on al-Assad's regime over its crackdown on dissenters.

In Syria itself, a footballer was killed Wednesday when shells struck a stadium in the capital Damascus, state media reported.

At least two shells landed in Tishreen Stadium in the city's Baramkeh district, as the Syrian team al-Wathba was in a training session, said the official news agency SANA.

The team's striker Youssef Suleiman was killed and several others injured, added SANA.

The incident came a day after two mortars landed near the presidential palace in Damascus where al-Assad usually meets foreign dignitaries.

Opposition rebels and al-Assad's troops have been fighting in and around Damascus for the past three months.

A total of 110 people were killed Wednesday across Syria, including 25 civilians near Damascus, reported opposition activists.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said typhoid had broken out in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour due to contaminated drinking water.

The agency added in a report that 2,500 people in the province had been infected with the contagious disease, which causes diarrhoea and can be fatal.

Hepatitis A, another water-borne disease, is spreading in northern areas such as Aleppo and Idlib as well as in schools housing displaced people in Damascus, according to the WHO.

It said Leishmaniasis, a disease that causes skin ulcers resembling leprosy, is spreading in al-Hasaka region near the Turkish border.

In Lebanon, a judge recommended the death penalty for former minister Michel Semaha and Syria's security chief Ali Mamlouk for allegedly plotting assassinations of Lebanon's prominent political and religious figures.

Semaha, a former Lebanese information minister known for links with Damascus, was arrested in Beirut in August. Mamlouk remains free in Syria.

Violence in neighbouring Syria has repeatedly spilled over into Lebanon since the uprising against al-Assad's regime started in March 2011.