Little progress made as Syria peace talks close in Switzerland

As a second round of peace talks ended Saturday with little progress in ending Syria's civil war, U.S. President Barack Obama and Jordan's King Abdullah spoke about Syria's distressing humanitarian crisis during an earlier meeting in California.

Jordan is a refuge for war-battered Syrians, and both leaders urged an end to the warfare that has caused such a mass exodus. They also discussed a possible United Nations sanction to pressure the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people, saying he was "very, very sorry" that, despite two rounds of talks, "we haven't done very much."

In minimal progress, the two warring sides have agreed to an agenda for a third round of talks, but they have not agreed on how to tackle it, Brahimi said.

In Britain, U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague described the latest developments as "a serious setback in the search for peace in Syria." Hague blamed the Syrian regime because it refused to discuss a transitional government.

Brahimi said the key sticking point is that the Syrian government wants to talk about tackling terrorism, while the opposition wants to discuss forming a transitional governing body.

Brahimi said he had suggested starting the next round of talks with one day of discussion on each issue, but the government would not agree.

"Unfortunately the government has refused, which raises the suspicion of the opposition that, in fact, the government doesn't want to discuss the (transitional governing body) at all," he said. Brahimi reiterated that such intransigence was "not good for the process," nor was it good for Syria.

Negotiators should go back to their leaders and reflect on a way forward, he said. "Do they want this process to take place or not?"

Louay Safi, of the opposition umbrella group Syrian National Coalition, said: "We want to progress on the two sides. We want to be assured that the regime is really wanting a political solution, not delay tactics, and we didn't get that, for reasons that were described by Mr. Brahimi.

"Our heart is in pain, our delegation is in pain, that as we speak here searching for a political solution the regime has chosen to bombard towns and cities killing civilians."