English edition of Asharq Al-Awsat - the world's premier pan-Arab daily.

It was the first meeting between Merkel and Putin in several months.

Paris - French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will participate in a Friends of Syria group meeting, which will be held on Wednesday in London.

Russian Federation and the USA are "gradually heading in the right direction" on a Syria deal and "I don't rule out that we'll be able to agree on something in the near future", Putin said in a September 1 interview.

The meeting follows talks between the US and Russian Federation on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China this week that failed to close the gaps between them on resolving the crisis.

A fresh round of crisis talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the margins of the G20 summit in Hangzhou had ended without agreement, AFP news agency quoted the official as saying.

Rain stops play in second Twenty20 global between West Indies and India
In the case of Sunday's game, the toss had taken place after which the decision to delay the start of the match was taken. India were set a target of 144 and would have been confident of winning the match.

USA will reject any agreement that does not offer any guarantees and that would be hard to implement, according to the French sources.

The Obama administration, which has always been reluctant to intervene directly in the civil war, nonetheless thinks that it is a distraction to what it considers the more important, separate battle against the Islamic State - in both Syria and Iraq - and that it must be resolved. Based on the considerations above, Kerry insists on reaching a balanced and viable agreement to avoid diplomatic disappointments. "There are no reasons for such dramatic statements as those being made by some State Department sources; that nothing has been achieved". Such victory, according to the sources, would empower Russian Federation and restore its authority on the global level.

Expressing further skepticism of Russia, Carter said that while "you've got to keep hoping, the experience suggests that we're not close to that point" where Moscow will change its actions.

Negotiations for the unlikely military partnership are set to continue on Monday, despite U.S. doubts that talks with Russian Federation would never reach a fruitful conclusion.

The failure to reach a deal is likely to heap pressure on Obama over his handling of the war in Syria.

He said difference between the two sides remained.