People make their way through debris on Monday following an air strike reportedly launched by government forces in Aleppo, northern Syria. Peace talks made little visible progress toward reaching a political settlement for the nearly three-year-long civil war. Photo: CFP

 Syria's warring sides launched a new round of peace talks Monday, as an agreement from the first round last month was being implemented with aid convoys evacuating the besieged city of Homs.

The UN and Arab League mediator, veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, began the latest session in Geneva by shuttling between the government and opposition teams.

It was not clear when or if the two sides would sit down for the sort of mediated face-to-face negotiations they held for a week in January.

Brahimi hopes to capitalize on the Homs agreement to find some way of closing the vast divide separating representatives from President Bashar al-Assad's regime and the fractured opposition.

There was little optimism that the tone would be more constructive this time. Both sides have shown themselves to be obstinate and quick to engage in blaming the other side.

This time, Brahimi wants to nudge the teams towards discussion of the core issues: stopping fighting and agreeing a transitional government in Damascus.

The initial round late last month was the first time the Syrian government and opposition sat down face-to-face since the outbreak of their vicious war nearly three years ago.

The government side is again headed by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem while the opposition negotiators were headed by Hadi al-Bahra.

Syrian state daily al-Watan said its sources expected "no progress," after the first round failed to reach agreement on key issues.

A source in the opposition delegation told AFP it planned to submit a report about the Assad regime's "violence, crimes against humanity and state terrorism."

Meanwhile, Russia on Monday proposed that diplomats from Moscow and Washington join their UN colleagues for a collective meeting with the two Syrian delegations at the peace talks in Geneva.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said such talks could be held with the two Syrian delegations jointly or at separate meetings.

"Russian diplomats are approaching the organization of the negotiating process as creatively as possible," Moscow's point man on the Syria crisis told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Monday.

The cease-fire permitting the Homs operation proved fragile on Saturday, when the first aid convoy came under attack, and mortar shells raining down on a rebel-held district on Sunday, killing five people. Red Crescent teams on Sunday managed nevertheless to evacuate some 600 people.

On Monday, they were readying to go back in again for the final day of the agreed operation.

AFP