Putin seeks map of forces in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked France for a Syrian combat map in order not to bomb groups fighting Islamic State.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked France to draw up a map of where groups fighting Islamic State militants operate in Syria in order not to bomb them.

French President Francois Hollande and Putin agreed during talks in Moscow on Thursday to exchange intelligence on Islamic State and other rebel groups to improve the effectiveness of their aerial bombing campaigns in Syria.

"He asked us to draw up a map of forces that are not terrorists and are fighting Daesh (Islamic State), Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said after accompanying Hollande to Moscow.

"He committed to not bombing them once we've provided that."

The West has accused Moscow of targeting mostly Western-backed rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad instead of Islamic State.

France has stepped up it aerial bombing campaign of Islamic State targets in Syria since the group claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 people.

The militants have also claimed the downing of a Russian airliner that broke up over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on October 31, killing all 224 people on board.

"There is now one point which everyone agrees and that is the objective of destroying Daesh," Fabius said referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"I think on that we are progressing."

He added that immediate priorities for both sides in the coming weeks would be to free Raqqa, Islamic State's Syrian stronghold, as well as targeting oil infrastructure controlled by the group.

"It is the neurological centre of Daesh, where attacks, especially those in France, originated," he said.

However, in what could prove a stumbling block to co-operation between Moscow and the West, Putin and Hollande remained at odds on Thursday over the fate of Assad.

He is an ally of Russia but Western countries, Turkey and Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia blame him for Syria's civil war and want him removed.


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Source: AAP


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