Kerry heads for Geneva peace talks as Aleppo deaths mount

International efforts appeared to be growing on Saturday to shore up Syria's faltering peace process as Syrian government planes continued to bombard rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to travel to Geneva, US officials said, in a show of support for peace talks and to seek a restoration of the partial ceasefire between pro-government and rebel forces which has collapsed amid an escalation of violence in recent days.

Meanwhile Qatar requested an "emergency" meeting of Arab League envoys to discuss the Syrian government air raids on Aleppo, the official Qatar News Agency reported.

Qatar’s permanent envoy at the Cairo-based pan-Arab body has requested holding "a meeting to discuss the dangerous escalation in the city of Aleppo and the Syrian regime forces’ massacres against civilians" there, a statement said.

At least 246 civilians have died in shelling, rocket fire and air strikes in both sides of the city since 22 April, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia late on Friday "strongly" condemned the raids and urged the Syrian government's allies "to take all measures needed to stop these attacks and all crimes carried out by [President] Bashar al-Assad and his supporters against the Syrian people".

"Through this criminal act, the tyrant of Damascus Bashar al-Assad, affirms that he is not serious in responding to the demands of the international community or in moving ahead with the ongoing talks to peacefully resolve the Syrian crisis," said a Saudi foreign ministry official in a statement on the SPA news agency.

A new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on 10 May in Geneva.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia support Syrian rebels fighting Assad's Russian- and Iranian-backed government in a conflict which has killed more than 270,000 people since it began in March 2011.

No Russian pressure on Assad

Despite the outcry over Aleppo, Russia on Saturday said it would not ask Assad to halt air raids on the city.

"No, we are not going to put pressure on [Damascus] because one must understand that the situation in Aleppo is part of this fight against the terrorist threat," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

Aleppo, capital of the northern province of the same name, is a key battleground and of vital strategic significance to both sides in the Syrian civil war.

Despite a truce that came into force on 27 February, what was once Syria's economic powerhouse has become the scene of some of the worst fighting in the five-year conflict.

US officials have accused Moscow of backing the attacks by Damascus as the Syrian government gears up for an expected ground assault on Aleppo.

On Thursday, Washington appealed to Moscow to keep Assad in check and the United States also expressed outrage over an air strike on an Aleppo hospital that killed at least 27, including the last paediatrician in rebel-held Aleppo.

Kerry said the strike matched a pattern of Syrian government attacks targeting health workers.

"Russia has an urgent responsibility to press the regime to fulfil its commitments under UNSCR 2254, including in particular to stop attacking civilians, medical facilities, and first responders, and to abide fully by the cessation of hostilities," said Kerry in a statement.

The Russian army responded by denying it was backing the strikes and indicated that no Russian war planes have flown over the city in recent days.

"Our army and the US army discuss the situation in Aleppo daily," Gatilov said on Saturday.