UN seeks to begin Syrian peace talks this week

The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said that peace talks, originally due to begin on Monday in Geneva, would begin later this week, Reuters news agency reports.

A monitoring group told the agency that a total of 135 people were killed in the first week of a partial truce in Syria in areas covered by the deal.

The U.N. said the delay in talks was due to "logistical and technical reasons and also for the ceasefire to better settle down".

"I see us beginning on (Thursday) March 10 when we will launch the process," de Mistura said in an interview with pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat.

The partial truce, drawn up by Washington and Moscow, came into force on February 27th, and it has slowed the pace of the war, but it does not include Islamic State militants or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

According to reports, fighting persisted in many parts of Syria, with rebels saying the government, backed by Russian air power and fighters from Iranian-backed Hezbollah, has kept up attacks on strategically important frontlines. Fighting has also continued between rebel groups and Kurdish-backed forces in north Aleppo, and between rebel groups and Islamic State.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State recently regained control of a border crossing with Iraq, seized by a group of rebels on Friday,

The five-year Syrian civil war has killed more than a quarter of a million people and created a massive refugee crisis in Lebanon, Turkey and the European Union.