ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Major powerbrokers agreed yesterday to hold a peace congress for Syria in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi in late January in a bid to speed up a political settlement for the war-torn country, reports AFP.

Sochi will host a “congress of national dialogue on Syria” on January 29 and 30, said a joint statement released after two days of talks spearheaded by Russia and Iran, both key backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and rebel-aligned Turkey.

The “Congress of National Dialogue” will see “the participation of all segments of Syrian society,” said the statement released in the Kazakh capital Astana.

“To this end three guarantors will hold a special preparation meeting in Sochi before the congress on 19-20 January,” it added, referring to Russia, Turkey and Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been hoping to convert Moscow’s game-changing military intervention in Syria into a political settlement on his terms.

In November, he convened the leaders of Turkey and Iran in Sochi to discuss the plan for the peace conference.

While both Russian officials and Assad have spoken enthusiastically of the plan, rebel representatives have been wary and the UN has yet to firmly endorse it.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura’s office acknowledged Friday the plan to hold the congress in January without throwing its full support behind it. “The United Nations maintains its view that any political initiative by international actors should be assessed by its ability to contribute to and support the mandated political process under the United Nations in Geneva,” Mistura’s office said in a statement. Mistura held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Thursday.

Representatives of the opposition have expressed fears the Sochi congress could prove a distraction from the UN negotiations.