Face-to-face meetings in Syrian talks

GENEVA -- Bending to intense international pressure, Syria's government and the Western-backed opposition agreed yesterday to face each other for the first time since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

After three days of hostile rhetoric and five hours spent assiduously avoiding contact within the United Nations, the two sides will meet "in the same room," said the UN mediator trying to forge an end to the civil war that has left 130,000 people dead since 2011.

Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi met separately with Assad's delegation and representatives with the Syrian National Coalition, who arrived at the UN European headquarters five hours apart to ensure their paths would not cross.

Russia and the United States, which have backed opposite sides in the fight, have raised the pressure for the peace conference, seeing it as the only hope to end a civil war that has destabilized the region and threatens to turn into a long stalemate.

At the heart of the talks is Assad's future. The U.S. and opposition want him out, saying a leader who unleashed his military on a peaceful protest had forfeited legitimacy. But Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970, has insisted he's going nowhere.

The two sides' willingness to meet with Brahimi -- even separately -- gave some hope the negotiations might bear fruit. Brahimi himself has said both sides may bend on humanitarian corridors, prisoner exchanges and local cease-fires.

-- AP