Russia 'positive' on Syria daily aid truce - ICRC

ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger held a 90-minute meeting with Lavrov on Monday in Moscow to ask Russia to help persuade Damascus to allow more access for humanitarian aid to civilians trapped in areas where President Bashar al-Assad's forces have waged offensives to crush rebels and protesters.

"It was a positive meeting," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in Geneva. "The ICRC received positive indications of support on its operational priorities and its initiative of a two-hour cessation of fighting on a daily basis."

The independent agency hoped to see "concrete results" on the ground in Syria in the coming days or weeks, he said.

Russia is one of Assad's few remaining allies and is seen as retaining some leverage on the Damascus government.

On February 21, the ICRC, the only international agency to deploy aid workers in Syria, proposed a daily humanitarian ceasefire of two hours to allow time to evacuate the wounded safely and deliver food, medicines and other vital supplies.

Despite what it says were initial "positive responses" received initially from both the Syrian government and armed opposition, such a ceasefire has yet to be implemented.

Rebels fought security forces in Damascus on Monday in the most violent gunbattles the Syrian capital has seen since the start of the year-long uprising against Assad, opposition activists said.

The United Nations say that more than 8,000 people have been killed and 230,000 forced to flee their home, mostly uprooted within Syria but including at least 30,000 who have gone abroad.

A joint team of experts from the U.N. and Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, led by the Syrian government, have started a mission to assess humanitarian needs across Syria, a source close to the mission said on Monday.

Hassan, referring to the Lavrov-Kellenberger talks, said: "The meeting was also focused on the importance today of neutral and independent humanitarian action in Syria.

"The ICRC had this meeting in the framework of its contacts with all those who could have a positive influence on its action in Syria. We hope to see concrete results from such contacts on the ground in coming days or weeks," he said.

However, the ICRC's main interlocutors remain the Syrian authorities and the Syrian opposition, and the agency is supporting all those in need of help in cooperation with its main partner, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, he added.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich)