Russia’s Putin and the UK’s Cameron meet for Syria talks

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron both gave optimistic remarks regarding a possible diplomatic resolution to Syria's civil war on Sunday.

Speaking at a joint press conference from Cameron's office in Downing Street, the two leaders said they hoped Bashar al-Assad's government and the Syrian opposition would find common ground during peace talks in Geneva next month.

The meeting, ahead of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, comes as the US said it would arm the rebels after it had found evidence that Assad's regime used chemical weapons on its own people. The move goes against the Kremlin, which supports Assad, though Putin said it had not sabotaged the upcoming peace talks.

"I don't think that the idea of the conference is buried for good," he said. "This is one of the most reasonable and acceptable ways of solving this problem. Only by joint efforts is it possible to definitively settle the problem and persuade the warring sides to sit down for talks."

Cameron acknowledged he and Putin had disagreements over Syria, but he also said the two nations shared a common goal: to stop the war that has killed over 90,000 people and displaced millions.

"It is no secret that President Putin and I have had our disagreements on some of these issues, but what I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome these differences if we recognize that we share some fundamental aims: to end this conflict; to stop Syria breaking apart; to let the Syrian choose who governs them; and to take the fight to the extremists and defeat them," Cameron said. 

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