Summary Kerry urges Russia to back transition in Syria as offensives in Aleppo and Damascus intensify.
DOHA (Reuters) - Western and Arab opponents of Bashar al-Assad met in Qatar on Saturday to tighten coordination of their stepped up support for rebels battling to overthrow the Syrian president.
Ministers from 11 countries including the United States, European and regional Sunni Muslim powers, held talks that Washington said should commit participants to direct all aid through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, which it hopes can offset the growing power of jihadist rebel forces.
After a series of military offensives by Assad s troops, including the recapture of a strategic border town two weeks ago, President Barack Obama said the United States would increase military support for the rebels.
Two Gulf sources told Reuters on Saturday that Saudi Arabia, which has taken a lead role among Arab opponents of Assad, had also accelerated delivery of advanced weapons to the rebels.
"In the past week there have been more arrivals of these advanced weapons. They are getting them more frequently," one source said, without giving details. Another Gulf source described them as "potentially balance-tipping" supplies.
Rebel fighters say they need anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to stem the fightback by Assad s forces in a civil war that has already killed 93,000 people and driven 1.6 million refugees into neighbouring countries.
Qatar s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani,whose country has been one of the most open backers of the anti-Assad rebels, said that supplying them with weapons was the only way to resolve the conflict.
"Force is necessary to achieve justice. And the provision of weapons is the only way to achieve peace in Syria s case," Sheikh Hamad told ministers at the start of the talks.
The meeting in Qatar brings together ministers of countries that support the anti-Assad rebels - France, Germany, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.
Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry is pressing hard on Russia to back an international conference intended to end the bloodshed in Syria and allow a transitional government to move the country beyond civil war.
Kerry met with officials from nearly a dozen countries on Saturday in Doha (DOH -hah), Qatar (GUH -tur), to discuss aid to the Syrian opposition and push forward on a political resolution to the crisis, which has claimed more than 93,000 lives.
Russia has been the key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad s regime throughout the two-year conflict.
Kerry says top U.S. diplomats are ready to go to Geneva to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (SEHR -gay LAHV -rahf) and other officials in coming days to advance the political process.
