Pair say wider talks aimed at ending Syrian civil war could take place – but only if they reach agreement on chemical weapons

Russia and the US announced efforts to revive a stalled international process to seek a longer term solution to the Syrian civil war on Friday, although wider talks would only take place if their negotiations aimed at securing Syria's chemical weapons prove successful.

Secretary of state John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov met United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on the sidelines of their summit in Geneva and pledged to try to restart a stalled international peace process later this month.

But both sides stressed that any such political progress toward a transitional government could only happen if they first reached agreement on how to ensure the Syrian government handed over its chemical weapons to international control.

Any decision to restart peace negotiations when they next meet at the UN general assembly in New York would "obviously depend on the capacity to have success here in the next day, hours, days, on the subject of the chemical weapons," said Kerry.

"I think we would both agree that we had constructive conversations regarding that, but those conversations are continuing and both of us want to get back to them now," he added during brief comments to reporters on Friday morning.

Lavrov was fractionally more upbeat on the prospects for eventually agreeing a "transitional governing organ" representing all groups of Syrian society, according to a transcript released by the State Department, but also urged all sides to focus on chemical weapons first.

"We are here, basically, to discuss the issue of chemical weapons in Syria," the Russian foreign minister agreed.

"Now that the Assad government joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, we have to engage our professionals together with the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Organisation, as we agreed with the United Nations, to design a road which would make sure that this issue is resolved quickly, professionally, as soon as practical."

Teams of chemical weapons experts from Russia and the US are locked in detailed discussions in Geneva over how to quantify Syria's chemical weapons and, more importantly, arrange for their safe transfer to international supervision and destruction in the midst of a chaotic civil war.

The talks were due to finish on Friday but may now continue for several days.

Russian officials are particularly keen to make sure the weapons do not fall into the hands of extremist rebels, who they blame for recent chemical attacks.

But the talks have also been complicated by fresh Syrian demands that attach conditions to the process, such as the US agreeing not to arm the rebels and ruling out military strikes of its own in return for signing the chemical weapons convention.

When the talks began Thursday, Kerry also bluntly rejected a Syrian pledge to begin a "standard process" by turning over information rather than weapons — and nothing immediately. Kerry said that was not acceptable.

"The words of the Syrian regime, in our judgment, are simply not enough," Kerry declared as he stood beside Lavrov. "This is not a game."

Salem al-Meslet, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said he was disappointed in the outcome of the Kerry and Lavrov meeting.

"They are leaving the murderer and concentrating on the weapons he was using," he said of Assad. "It is like stabbing somebody with a knife then they take the knife away and he is free."

He spoke on the sidelines of a two-day opposition conference in Istanbul.

The talks were the latest in a rapidly moving series of events following the 21 August gas attack on suburbs in Damascus. The US blames Bashar al-Assad for the use of chemical weapons, although Assad denies his government was involved and instead points to rebels fighting against his government.

On Thursday, Assad offered to provide details on his country's chemical arsenal beginning 30 days after it signs an international convention banning such weapons. Syria's ambassador to the UN said that as of Thursday his country had become a full member of the treaty, which requires destruction of all chemical weapons.

Lavrov said the initiative must proceed "in strict compliance with the rules that are established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons."

But Kerry appeared to reject Assad's conditions, saying on Thursday: "We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved." The turnover of weapons must be complete, verifiable and timely, he said, "and, finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn't take place."

Lavrov said a military strike would not be necessary. "We proceed from the fact that the solution to this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic, and I am convinced that our American colleagues, as President Obama stated, are firmly convinced that we should follow a peaceful way of resolution to the conflict in Syria," Lavrov said.

The distrust in US-Russia relations was on display even in an off-hand parting exchange at the opening news conference. Just before it ended, Kerry asked the Russian translator to repeat part of Lavrov's concluding remarks.

When it was clear that Kerry wasn't going to get an immediate retranslation, Lavrov apparently tried to assure him that he hadn't said anything controversial.

"It was OK, John, don't worry," he said. "You want me to take your word for it?" Kerry asked Lavrov. "It's a little early for that."

Shortly after making their opening statements, the two went into a private dinner.

Assad, in an interview with Russia's Rossiya-24 TV, said his government would start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention. He also said the Russian proposal for securing the weapons could work only if the US halted threats of military action.

At a meeting in Kyrgyzstan of an international security grouping dominated by Russia and China, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Friday that Syria's efforts have demonstrated its good faith. "I would like to voice hope that this will mark a serious step toward the settlement of the Syrian crisis," Putin said.

As the Geneva talks continued, reports emerged that the CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian rebels for several weeks, following Obama's statement in June that he would provide lethal aid to the rebels.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the administration could not "detail every single type of support that we are providing to the opposition or discuss timelines for delivery, but it's important to note that both the political and the military opposition are and will be receiving this assistance."

Current and former US intelligence officials told the Associated Press that the CIA has arranged for the Syrian opposition to receive anti-tank weaponry such as rocket-propelled grenades through a third party, presumably one of the Gulf countries that have been arming the rebels. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified program publicly.

Loay al-Mikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, told the Associated Press that his group expected to receive weapons in the near future.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press in Geneva