UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived Monday in Damascus for talks about the planned Geneva peace conference aimed at ending the conflict in the country, a UN source told dpa.
The visit, Brahimi's first to Damascus since December, is part of a regional tour which took him over the weekend to Iran, Syria's main ally, and Turkey, where he met with members of the opposition.
Brahimi has been trying to press members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition to take part in the Geneva conference, which is aimed at ending a 31-month conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people by UN estimates.
No date has been set for the conference, but the Arab League has said it might be on November 23-24.
On the ground, Syrian television said the country's armed forces on Monday killed at least 25 rebel fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in an ambush upon villages east of the central province of Homs.
The broadcaster reported that regime forces also managed to retake control of the Christian town of Sadad, in central Syria, after "terrorists" from a jihadist group entered it. Sadad has remained loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.