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Around 140 from a wide range of opposition platforms attend meeting co-chaired by the UN's Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (C) sits between Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer Al-Sabhan (2nd R) and U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura (2nd L) during a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 22, 2017. (Reuters)

Syrian opposition figures met in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in a bid to form an overhauled delegation to peace.

The meeting came as Iran, Russia and Turkey held a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, pressing their diplomatic dash to resolve Syria's six-year conflict with a new round of UN-brokered peace talks set to open in Geneva next Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani had agreed to a "congress" of Syrian regime and opposition forces in Sochi, aimed at boosting the Geneva process.

The Riyadh meeting was co-chaired by the UN's Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir, who said the aim was to reach a "fair solution" to the conflict.

De Mistura said the goal was to give momentum to next week's talks in Geneva by forging a unified opposition delegation, as long demanded by the Syrian regime.

He said he would travel to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian officials.

"I'm always optimistic ... especially in this moment," he said.

The 140 or so delegates from a wide range of opposition platforms are under heavy pressure to row back on some of their more radical demands after a series of recent battlefield victories that have given Bashar al Assad's regime the upper hand.

However, several former leading figures were absent in the meeting.

Among them is Riyad Hijab, who stepped down as leader of the Saudi-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) ahead of the meeting complaining that there were "attempts to lower the ceiling of the revolution and prolong the regime."

Multiple rounds of talks hosted by the UN have failed to bring an end to the war in Syria, which has killed more than 400,000 people since 2011 and forced millions from their homes.

Factions opposed to Assad have been plagued by divisions throughout the maelstrom.

Participants in the Riyadh meeting include members of the Istanbul-based National Coalition as well as of rival Cairo- and Moscow-based groups seen as more favourable to the regime, and independent figures.

Qadri Jamil, who heads the Moscow-based group, on Wednesday announced he would not be attending the talks, citing what he said was the Syrian opposition's inability to agree on "the bases and principles" of their stance at the Saudi summit.

The National Coalition meanwhile said Jamil had pulled out after "disagreement over an article on Bashar al Assad stepping down and the start of a transitional phase" in Syria.

Source: AFP