UN envoy Kofi Annan set to meet Syria's Bashar al-Assad

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is due to hold talks on Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Mr Annan's plan to end the country's conflict has been overshadowed by international revulsion at Friday's massacre in the Houla region. Mr Annan called the massacre "an appalling moment with profound consequences". Survivors have told the BBC of their shock and fear as regime forces entered their homes and killed their families. Mr Annan said the Syrian government has to take "bold steps" to show it is serious about peace. He said his "message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun". On Monday Mr Annan held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood. Under Mr Annan's plan, both sides were to stop fighting on 12 April ahead of the deployment of monitors, and the government was to withdraw tanks and forces from civilian areas. Mr Annan will be pressing Mr Assad to make good on those earlier promises, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon reports. 

Much will depend on the position taken by Syria's main international ally and diplomatic protector, Russia, our correspondent adds. Russia, which has twice blocked UN Security Council resolutions backing action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, said on Monday that both sides bore responsibility for Friday's massacre. "We are dealing with a situation in which both sides evidently had a hand in the deaths of innocent civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Western leaders have expressed horror at the killings, and the UK, France and US have all begun moves to raise diplomatic pressure on the Assad government. France is convening another meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group, which Russia does not take part in. "The murderous folly of the Damascus regime represents a threat for regional security and its leaders will have to answer for their acts," said President Francois Hollande's office.