UN envoy for Syria to hold talks with Turkish foreign minister

The UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will on Saturday hold talks with Turkish officials, as tension between Turkey and Syria continue to rise, dpa reported.

Brahimi's visit comes a few days after Turkey said it had found Russian-made military equipment on a Syrian civilian plane that it forced to land in Ankara. Syria has denied the plane was carrying military equipment.

The two neighbors have also traded cross-border fire, raising fears that Turkey was getting more involved in the Syrian conflict.

The UN envoy, who held talks in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, is due to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

There have also been reports that Brahimi may visit Syria next week.

Ibrahimi has not yet presented a peace plan to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

Activists said 24 people were killed across Syria on Saturday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes on rebel-held areas near the northern province of Idlib.

Rebels said on Friday they had captured an air defense base from government forces near the northern city of Aleppo.

Brahimi's visit to Turkey comes after the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) postponed a meeting aimed at admitting new anti-Syrian regime factions into the bloc.

The meeting, which was set to be held in Qatar October 17, will now be held in November.