Seeking to salvage and reinforce a shaky truce, world and regional powers have agreed to try and turn the faltering pause in Syria's fighting into a comprehensive ceasefire and boost humanitarian aid with the hope of restarting peace talks.
But underscoring the difficulties in ending the five-year war that has left hundreds of thousands dead and fuelled the rise of Islamic extremists, representatives from more than 20 nations, including Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, were not able to outline specific penalties for non-compliance with the truce.
The UN special envoy for Syria didn't set a date for the resumption of negotiations on a political transition.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the participants set a June 1 deadline for the resumption of humanitarian aid to areas cut off from the outside world.
He said that if land routes remain blocked, food aid will be air dropped and international pressure will be increased on those preventing such relief from getting through.
Such pressure will also be applied to stop indiscriminate use of force by the Syrian military, Kerry added, without specifying what pressure the powers could apply.
The group also broadly agreed that "persistent non-compliance" with the truce could result in rebel forces being excluded from the agreement.
But beyond such pledges, the meeting did not devise any concrete ways to resolve the main problem standing in the way of peace - factional divisions.
One key division continues to be the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Moscow opposes any attempt to forge a peace settlement that is conditional on his removal.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country's support of the Syrian regime did not constitute backing for Assad.
Britain nonetheless called for more leverage on Assad from Moscow, while Germany repeated the position held by the West and the Saudi-backed opposition that an agreement should outline steps leading to the end of the Syrian leader's rule.
Kerry questioned suggestions that Assad was immune from international pressure to agree to a settlement, implying that unspecified other means could be applied if the Syrian leader remains obstinate.
If Assad "has reached a conclusion that there is no Plan B, he has done so without any foundation whatsoever, and it's very dangerous, dangerous," Kerry said.
The diplomats at the talks also called on all parties to dissociate themselves from the Islamic State and the al-Qaida affiliate, known as the Nusra Front, Kerry said.
Those comments reflect international concerns about attempts by Islamic radicals to form alliances with Syrian rebels, a worry Lavrov said all participants at the talks share.
"In particular, we have the problem of al-Nusra," he said.
"It is changing, it makes alliances with groups in the cessation of hostilities."
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