Rebel alliance leader says no talks while 'foreign forces' bomb Syria

The co-ordinator of the Syrian opposition, former prime minister Riad Hijab, has said there will be no negotiations with the Syrian government while "foreign forces" were bombing the country.

"We cannot negotiate with the regime while there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people," Hijab said after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

"We want to negotiate, we are serious, but for that, the conditions need to be met."

Hijab, a defector from the Syrian government, was chosen as a representative of dozens of rebel groups who gathered in December to discuss a UN push to bring peace to Syria. The rebels and the Syrian government are due to begin peace talks in Geneva on 25 January.

His statement came hours after Moscow denied its air forced targeted civilians following reports 12 children and three adults were killed when a Russian bomb hit a school in Aleppo province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that the attack injured another 20 children and teachers.

However, the Russian foreign ministry denied its planes had attacked the areas. "Russia does not conduct operations against civilians," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the AFP news agency.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was an "absolute necessity for Syria and Russia to stop their military operations against civilian populations".

Russia has come under growing criticism from the West as well as human rights groups and Syrian rebels for inflicting civilian casualties in the bombing campaign it launched on 30 September at the request of President Bashar al-Assad, its long-time ally.

Moscow says it is targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists" and has dismissed reports that its raids have killed hundreds of civilians as "absurd".

Amnesty International in December published a damning report claiming that the Russian raids had killed hundreds of civilians, many in targeted strikes that could constitute war crimes.

The Britain-based Observatory said in December that three months of Russian air strikes in Syria had killed more than 2,300 people, a third of them civilians. 

The monitoring group has also accused Russia of killing civilians in strikes on Saturday aimed at a prison complex run by the the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate. 

The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that its forces in Syria had struck 1,097 targets in 311 combat sorties since the beginning of the year.