Regional leaders meet over Syria

CAIRO // Officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran planned to meet yesterday to form a "contact group" aimed at resolving the conflict in Syria.

Delegations were due to gather in Cairo "in a bid to confront the deteriorating situation in Syria, and put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and an end to the bloodshed, through a political process", Egypt's foreign ministry said.

The meeting is the first of a regional contact group on Syria proposed by Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, at an August summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, which suspended Syria's membership.

The meeting came as the UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, began separate talks in Egypt about what he called the "very difficult" mission to bring peace to Syria.