'Friends of Syria' to meet in UK next week: Hague

Western and Gulf nations opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will hold a meeting in London on 15 May to discuss stepping up support for rebels, Britain's Foreign Office said Tuesday.

The core 11 countries involved in the so-called "Friends of Syria" will also seek ways of getting aid into Syria, and discuss the political situation ahead of a widely criticised presidential election in June.

News of the meeting follows an announcement from both the UK and the US governments over the past week of a resumption of non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition.

The UK will send $1.6 mn worth of communications equipment, vehicles, generators and medical kits to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) "as soon as possible," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Friday.

While granting diplomatic status to the Syrian National Coalition, the opposition's largest umbrella organisation, on Monday, the US also announced that it is offering a further $27 mn in non-lethal support. The US is the largest single donor of more than $1.5 bn in humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.

Hague will host the talks, which US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to attend.

"This meeting comes at a time of widespread indiscriminate regime violence against civilians, plans to hold elections which will be a grotesque parody of democracy, and the regime's complete failure to provide humanitarian access," it said.

"Foreign Ministers will discuss how best to significantly step up our support to the Syrian opposition, make urgent progress on improving the deteriorating humanitarian crisis and reinvigorate a political process that has stalled due to regime intransigence."

The 11 nations include Western powers the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy as well as key regional opponents of Assad: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Arab powers Egypt and Jordan are also part of the group, which does not include Assad's allies Russia and Iran.