UPDATE - New Syria meeting set for Saturday, Russia says

UPDATES WITH COMMENTS FROM STATE DEPT; WHITE HOUSE

By Hakan Ceyhan Aydogan and Emel Oz Gozellik

MOSCOW (AA) - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are to meet Saturday in an effort to revive hopes for peace in Syria, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said the meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, would also be attended by regional powers.

The meeting should include Russia, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar, Lavrov told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Moscow.

"We would like to have a meeting in this narrow format, to have a businesslike discussion, not another General Assembly-like debate," he said.

The meeting will “consider possible additional steps aimed at creating conditions for a Syrian crisis settlement,” the ministry said.

The U.S. State Department confirmed that Kerry would attend the meeting with the objective to achieve a successful framework through multilateral discussions for a sustained cease-fire and resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria.

Agency spokesman John Kirby did not provide details on which nations would participate in the meeting, except that all were members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG). “The vast majority" of the invited countries agreed to attend, he said.

Regarding the recently suspended bilateral U.S.-Russia relations, Kirby said Kerry would have preferred to keep that channel open if Russia – the main supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad -- would have kept to its commitments.

"If Russia can prove that it's capable, willing, of taking extraordinary steps, significant steps to meet its obligations, the same obligations that they agreed to in Geneva, then we would be open to considering renewing that bilateral channel," he said.

He added that the U.S. was not available for that option right now.

At a White House press briefing earlier Wednesday, spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. efforts to find peace for Syria no longer included a possible military cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

"That's something that Russia has lost, frankly, lost the credibility to be able to try to agree to," he said.

On Oct. 3, the U.S. ended talks with Russia aimed at reviving a cease-fire following a Russian bombing campaign around Aleppo, where Syrian regime troops are trying to take the city’s eastern districts.