Syria Action Group Officials to Meet Friday in Geneva

Senior officials from countries taking part in international talks on Syria will meet on Friday in Geneva, a spokesman for peace envoy Kofi Annan said.

"There will be a preparatory meeting of the Action Group on Syria tomorrow," the day before planned ministerial talks, Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement on Thursday.

"The countries and organizations participating in the Action Group Meeting on Saturday will be represented tomorrow at the level of senior officials," he added.

Annan has convened the meeting to shore up his faltering peace plan. Invited are all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus other key regional players including Turkey.

Iran and Saudi Arabia were left off the guest list however.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are among those due to attend the meeting, which Annan said Wednesday would seek agreement on guidelines and principles "for a Syrian-led political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."

The six-point peace plan brokered by the former U.N. secretary general came into force in mid-April but its key provisions, which include a total cessation of violence, have been repeatedly breached since then.

Annan said that the action group aimed to "identify steps and measures to secure full implementation of the six-point plan".