"The plan for negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition will begin after purging Syria of armed groups," Muallem was quoted as saying after meeting the chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, Aladin Borujerdi, in Damascus.

"The condition for any political negotiation is the halt to violence by armed groups and a declaration of opposition to foreign military intervention in Syria," Muallem said.

Borujerdi, whose government is Damasus's staunchest ally, was quoted by IRNA as saying that "We see Syria's security as our security. On this basis, we will stick by our Syrian brothers."

Borujerdi was also to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President Faruq al-Shara, IRNA reported.

Shara made his first public appearance in over a month on Sunday, following rumours that he had tried to defect.

Shara was last seen in public at a state funeral for top security officials who were killed in a bomb blast on July 18.

Speculation has swirled since last week over the fate of Shara, the highest-ranking Sunni Muslim official in Assad's minority Alawite-led regime, since the opposition claimed he had tried to defect.

Assad's regime has been rattled by several high-profile defections as the Syrian conflict has escalated, including former prime minister Riad Hijab and prominent General Manaf Tlass, one of Assad's childhood friends.

Syria's state news agency SANA said on Saturday that a fake email had been sent out in its name claiming that the vice president had been sacked, adding that the "information is completely wrong."

After the opposition claims, state television on August 19 quoted a statement from Shara's office saying that "Mr Shara has never thought about leaving the country or going anywhere."

A former minister who defected this year also said earlier this month that it was "well-known" that Shara had tried to leave the country and was under house arrest.

Syria was also forced to deny that Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had announced on Twitter he had replaced Shara, with SANA saying this month that the information was "wrong" and that Muallem did not have a Twitter account.