Syria will send a delegation to a January 22 Geneva peace conference under the orders of President Bashar al-Assad, a foreign ministry source says.
"Syria announces the participation of an official delegation under the orders of (Assad) and the demands of the Syrian people, with the top priority eliminating terrorism," the source was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the official SANA news agency.
The Geneva peace conference is aimed at ending the nearly three-year-old civil war, a bloody stalemate estimated to have killed more than 120,000 people and driven millions from their homes.
The ministry source also said the delegation was not going to Geneva to hand over power, and that the condition stipulated by Syria's opposition and the West that Assad must not have a role in the country's future was out of the question.
"The official Syrian delegation will not go to Geneva to hand over power, but to take part (in talks) along with those who are committed to furthering the interests of the Syrian people and who support a political solution for Syria's future," the source said.
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"Our people will not allow anyone to steal their right to choose their future and their leaders, and what is key about Geneva is to assert the Syrians' rights, and not of those who are spilling the people's blood."
The source criticised "the French, British and other foreign ministries as well as their agents in the Arab world who have insisted that there can be no place for President Assad in the transitional period.
"The ministry reminds them that the age of colonialism is over, and they need to wake up... Otherwise it will be useless for them to attend Geneva II."
Meanwhile, hundreds of Turks have crossed the border into Syria to fight with al-Qaeda linked jihadists against the Damascus regime, according to a Turkish interior ministry report.
Turkey's government, which is fiercely opposed to Assad, has come under fire for allegedly turning a blind eye to militants and weapons crossing the long border into Syria.
The interior ministry report, published in several Turkish newspapers on Wednesday, said about 500 Turkish citizens had joined the ranks of the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"Some have received training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the report said, according to Today's Zaman newspaper.
Based on data collected by the National Intelligence Organisation and national police, the report said 13 Turks fighting alongside Al-Nusra had been killed in Syria.
It said another 75 Turkish citizens had been killed in the conflict which first erupted in March 2011.
Officials from the interior ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Western reluctance to back more moderate rebels in the uprising against Assad has strengthened the position of radical Islamist fighters, including ISIL and the Al-Nusra Front.
