Fighting continues as peace talks stall

Geneva –A standoff between Russia and Western powers left their rival Syrian allies deadlocked in talks at Geneva today as fighting went on that has left tens of thousands under siege and hoping for relief from abroad.

Russia said it had presented a draft United Nations resolution on fighting ‘‘terrorism’’ in Syria and its own plan for improving aid access, throwing down a challenge to Western states in the UN Security Council, which proposed another formulation that Moscow said would open the way for Western military intervention.

In Geneva, where a second round of peace talks has made little progress since Monday, Western diplomats and the Syrian opposition delegates complained that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was refusing to discuss international proposals for a transition of power, and hoped Russia would press it to do so.

Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi was meeting senior Russian and United States diplomats in Geneva yesterday, hoping the three-weekold process’s co-sponsors could salvage negotiations which some Western diplomats said were already in danger of collapse.

‘‘What we have seen so far is that the regime is not serious,’’ opposition delegate Anas al-Abdah said.

‘‘The sooner the Russians can put enough pressure on the Syrian regime side, the better. And they are positioned to do that.’’

Western diplomats also said they hoped Moscow could apply pressure on the Damascus government to do more to compromise

. If not, some feared a planned third round of talks might not follow any time soon after this week’s discussions are completed.

Opposition activists say the rate of killing has increased in the three weeks since talks began – averaging a record of more than 230 a day – as both sides have sought to shore up their bargaining positions by gaining territory.

Activists say government forces dropped crude barrel bombs from the air on rebel-held areas around Damascus and Aleppo, as well as the town of al-Zara near Homs.

There were clashes in Hama province near a highway, that rebels have been trying to block to cut the government’s supply lines.

Russia has been Assad’s most powerful international ally during the three-year-old conflict, using its veto in the Security Council to block bids to pressure him with condemnation or the threat of sanctions.

US President Barack Obama criticised Russian attitudes to the latest UN efforts to provide aid. The Russian Foreign Ministry hit back on Wednesday, calling that a ‘‘distortion’’.

Moscow’s new push for a resolution condemning acts of ‘‘terrorism’’ is in tune with rhetoric from Damascus, which uses the term to describe all those fighting to oust Assad in the conflict that has killed more than 130,000 people.

The Syrian government delegation has resisted efforts to discuss a transition of power in Geneva this week, saying fighting ‘‘terrorism’’ must be addressed first.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western countries that have lent support to the opposition and rebel groups, which are fighting alongside al Qaeda and other Islamist militants, of ‘‘de facto attempts to justify terrorism’’.

In the city of Homs, a key battleground for much of the war, the evacuation of hungry civilians and rebel fighters from the besieged old quarter was continuing for a seventh day and a ceasefire was extended until tomorrow, the governor said.

In all, 1400 people had been evacuated since last Friday, when a UN-brokered ceasefire came into force. It was an early achievement of the Geneva process begun on January 22.

Amnesty International urged the UN Security Council to overcome its differences and act to help a quarter of a million Syrian civilians stuck under siege.

Survivors from Homs told of cigarettes costing $30 a pack and of food being unobtainable. Some spoke of people dying after foraging poisonous weeds. cases come to the fore in the staunchly Catholic country, the head of the nation’s Catholic news agency said today. The book appears to be a response by Poland’s church to allegations that it has been sweeping cases of sex abuse under the carpet, against the Vatican’s efforts since 2001 to punish abusers. More than 30 Polish priests have already been tried for sex abuse, though most cases have ended in suspended prison terms, indicating a general leniency for the church in Poland, where religion is taught in schools and senior church officials attend state ceremonies.