European leaders have urged Russia to maintain the ceasefire in Syria so peace talks, which they hope will eventually lead to President Bashar al Assad stepping down, can go ahead as early as next week, the Guardian reported

British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi held a 50-minute call early Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Cameron's spokeswoman said he had stressed to Putin the importance of using the opportunity created by the ceasefire to press forward with a formal peace process. This could begin with talks in Geneva next week and end with "a transition away from Assad".

"We welcome the fact that this fragile truce appears to be holding," she said, adding that Downing Street hoped the ceasefire could last long enough for the process outlined in the Vienna peace agreement, struck late last year, to begin in earnest.

"Everybody on the call had a common interest in defeating Daesh in Syria, and therefore it is in all our interest to support a peace process in the country that can lead to a stable, inclusive government that has the support of all Syrians."

The leaders also discussed the need to get humanitarian aid to besieged towns in Syria, and to improve conditions sufficiently to allow refugees who had fled the fighting to return home. 

Source : MENA