Peace envoy Kofi Annan yesterday left Syria empty-handed after failing to secure an accord to end Syria’s year-long bloodletting, as fighting raged in major flashpoints leaving dozens more dead.

...it’s going to be difficult but we have to have hope

The UN-Arab League envoy departed from Damascus at the end of a two-day mission during which he said he presented President Bashar al-Assad with “concrete proposals” to halt unrest monitors say has claimed more than 8,500 lives since March last year.

On the ground, however, more than 120 people – 47 of them civilians caught in the crossfire – have been killed in two days of clashes between armed rebels and regular soldiers, mainly in the northwestern Idlib province stormed on Saturday by regime forces, monitors said yesterday.

Fighting also occurred yesterday in the central city of Hama, the nearby province of Homs, and in the Damascus countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Mr Annan on his first mission to Syria to attempt to secure a halt to the violence, had emerged positive from talks with Mr Assad, a follow-up to their first meeting the previous day.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult but we have to have hope. I am optimistic,” Mr Annan told reporters, while stressing the urgency of finding a solution.

Mr Assad had insisted during their first meeting on Saturday there would be no dialogue until the “terrorist groups” he claims are fomenting the violence are disbanded.