Moscow:The United States and Russia agreed Tuesday to push ahead with Syrian peace talks in New York this week after intense talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and President Vladimir Putin.

After a three-hour meeting in Moscow between Putin and Kerry Russia and the United States appeared to be a step closer to each other's positions on Syria though differences remained on the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

"We support the idea of convening in New York another meeting of the International Syria Support Group at the ministerial level this Friday December 18" Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks at the Kremlin.

Kerry who said the Moscow talks focused on Syria counterterrorism and Ukraine also confirmed the slated meeting would take place.

Both he and Lavrov said the negotiations would lead to a UN Security Council resolution to underpin the Syria peace process.

"We discussed today in great detail the need to accelerate the effort" Washington's top diplomat said.

"You can't defeat Daesh without also de-escalating the fight in Syria" he said using another name to refer to the Islamic State group.

Washington and Moscow are the key powers in the peace process leading talks through the 17-nation International Syria Support Group.

Focus on political process

After the Kremlin talks Kerry and Lavrov admitted differences remained between the two countries on Assad's fate but stressed they would not let them slow the political process.

"What we have said is that we don't believe that Assad himself has the ability to lead the future Syria" Kerry said.

"But we focused today not on our differences about what can and can't be done immediately about Assad we focused on the political process whereby Syrians will be making decisions about the future of Syria."

He also said he conveyed to Putin Washington's concern "that some of Russia's strikes have hit the moderate opposition" in Syria and not just IS.

"And I'm pleased to say he took that under advisement" Kerry said.

In a grim reminder of the pressing need to end the war a monitoring group said on Tuesday that suspected Russian air strikes on two markets in Syria had killed at least 39 civilians.

More than 250000 people have died since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 and millions more have fled their homes.

Washington is relying on the Kremlin to drag its ally Assad to the table for talks with his rebel opponents.

Also looming over the effort is the threat posed by IS to spread the carnage beyond Syria's borders.

Kerry hopes that if the regime and the rebels can agree a truce then they Russia and a US-led coalition of Western and Arab allies can focus their fire on IS.

Lavrov said the two countries agreed to intensify "our efforts in counter-terrorism."

"ISIL Jabhat Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups are common threats to every one of us and today we reiterated our determination to uproot this evil" he said referring to IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

The negotiations had been in jeopardy after Moscow took issue with last week's unprecedented rebel talks in Saudi Arabia charging that several "terrorist" groups had taken part in them.

Meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh the rebels insisted that Russian ally Assad and his aides quit power "with the start of the transition period" set out by world powers in Vienna last month.

Non-starter

Moscow has strongly objected and Kerry said on Tuesday the opposition demand that Assad must go was not official International Syria Support Group policy.

"With respect to the declarations of the people who came together in Riyadh that is not the position of the international Syria Support Group" he said.

"It's a non-starting position obviously" he said reiterating that the transition would take place in "about a six month period."

US officials stress Russia has committed to a political transition to end the war and warn that if it cannot get Assad to the table the Kremlin's own forces will get bogged down in the fighting.

Russia has dispatched air and naval forces to Syria to shore up Assad's regime while the United States and its allies are bombing Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.

US-Russia ties have also been strained over Ukraine but Washington said it would not be drawn into bargaining with Russia over the sanctions it imposed over Moscow's interference there.

"We had a good discussion on Ukraine" Kerry said adding that when Russia meets the conditions set out in a Western-brokered peace agreement "sanctions can begin to be rolled back."

AFP