UK looks to Putin in bid to end Syria deadlock

The Prime Minister said he would be meeting Mr Putin in Downing Street on Sunday ahead of next week’s G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

“We should use the G8 to try and bring pressure on all sides to bring about what we all want, which is a peace conference, a peace process and a move towards a transitional government in Syria,” he told MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Tensions with Moscow over the conflict in Syria ratcheted up last month when Britain combined with France to secure the lifting of the EU arms embargo to block the supply of weapons to the rebels.

The Russians responded by announcing they would go ahead with the supply of sophisticated S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the regime of President Bashar al Assad to deter “hotheads” from entering the conflict.

In the Commons, Mr Cameron strongly defended the ending of the EU embargo, saying it was designed to put pressure on the regime to attend planned peace talks in Geneva brokered by Russia and the United States.

“The point about lifting the arms embargo - which applied originally to both the regime and the official Syrian opposition – is to send a very clear message about our intentions and about our views to President Assad,” he said.

“We all want to see a peace conference come about. the question is how are we most likely to put pressure on the parties to attend that peace conference.”

Pressed by Labour leader Ed Miliband, Mr Cameron stressed that no decision had been taken to arm the rebels, and he again indicated that MPs would be given a chance to vote if the Government did decide to go ahead.

Foreign Secretary William Hague also warned last night that the international community must be “prepared to do more” to end the Syria crisis following talks in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

He said the two nations remained committed to securing a diplomatic solution but suggested they must be ready to increase pressure on Assad’s regime.

Mr Hague described the atrocities being meted out on civilians as the “most urgent crisis anywhere in the world”.

“We are both deeply concerned by what is happening to innocent people there,” he told reporters at a press conference with Mr Kerry.

“The regime appears to be preparing new assaults, endangering the lives and safety of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who are already in desperate need. And the scale of the regime’s oppression and the human suffering that it has caused beggars belief.”

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels have attacked a village in the country’s east, killing dozens of Shiites, mostly pro-government fighters, activists said.

At least 60 died in Hatla village in the province of Deir el-Zour, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said many villagers from Hatla were forced to flee.

The clashes came a week after Syrian troops backed by Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group captured the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border

On Tuesday, at least 14 people were killed when two suicide bombers hit a square in central Damascus. One explosion inside a police station left many officers among the dead.

Syrian state TV quoted a security official as saying 14 people died in blasts caused by two “terrorist” suicide bombers near a police station in the bustling Marjeh Square in the heart of the capital.

The official said another 31 were wounded.