Talks between senior US and Russian officials on a broad ceasefire in Syria are likely to last into the weekend while fighting intensifies, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura says.
In a separate negotiation, there was still hope of agreeing a weekly 48-hour truce in the divided northern city of Aleppo to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, his humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said.
The two negotiations reflect a desperate diplomatic effort to bring some calm amid an escalation of the five-year conflict, in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, as Russian, Turkish, Iranian, Saudi and US-backed forces turn up the heat.
Military, security and diplomatic officials from the United States and Russia resumed talks in Geneva on Wednesday to give a "renewed and solid momentum to the cessation of hostilities", de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
Their talks followed a marathon, ultimately unproductive meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week.
"The discussions currently taking place between the US and Russia at a very high level and operational level go well beyond the 48-hour pause (in Aleppo)," de Mistura told reporters.
"We hope and are helping so that these negotiations, which have lasted too long, may reach an outcome. Time is short."
Egeland said only pressure from countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - which back different sides in Syria's complex civil war - could unlock the door to aid deliveries.
"It's urgent that we get an agreement. We were informed today that there are now 4000 food rations left. That would be enough for 20,000 people, and the population of east Aleppo is a quarter of a million," he said of the city's rebel-held part.
Last week the long-besieged rebel-controlled town of Daraya surrendered in a deal with Syrian government-backed forces, and de Mistura said there was clearly a Damascus strategy to achieve similar deals in other besieged towns.
"The (humanitarian) task force failed the people of Daraya, we all failed the people of Daraya," Egeland said. "There are now urgent pleas from communities in al Waer, Moadamiya, Madaya and in (rebel-besieged) Foue and Kefraya to break the sieges of those places...And we need to break the sieges."
Egeland also voiced concern about a meningitis outbreak in Madaya, "where we were going to evacuate people today and we couldn't because of fighting".
Six suspected cases of meningitis, a potentially fatal bacterial infection, have been identified this month in Madaya, and only two of the victims have been evacuated despite requests to Syrian authorities, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.
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