Syria election a 'farce': NATO head

The head of NATO has dismissed the presidential election in Syria as a "farce" that doesn't meet international standards.

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has dismissed the presidential election in Syria as a "farce", saying it did not meet international standards.

"The Syrian presidential election is a farce," Mr Rasmussen said as he went into a NATO defence ministers meeting on Tuesday.

The vote "does not fulfil international standards for free, fair and transparent elections and I am sure no [NATO] ally will recognise the outcome of these so-called elections," he said.

President Bashar al-Assad is expected to win a crushing victory over two little known challengers in the election, which the Syrian opposition has also condemned as a "farce".

There was no voting in the roughly 60 percent of the country outside the control of Assad's government, which includes large areas of second city Aleppo.

The latest figures put the number of dead in the Syrian conflict at more than 160,000, with no end seemingly in sight.