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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held talks in Cairo in a fresh diplomatic effort to end the Syrian crisis, Radio Liberty reported.

Lavrov met on November 4 with Arab League head Nabil Elaraby and the joint UN-Arab League mediator on the Syrian conflict, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Lavrov stressed all parties needed to agree to negotiate based on the Geneva Declaration, which was agreed in June and calls for a transition administration, but leaves unclear what role, if any, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would have.

"I think there is a very simple answer - we decided what to do in Geneva. And it is incumbent upon us to move forwards on the basis of what was agreed upon in Geneva. And the players outside of the region should coordinate and ....... in one direction. And Russia is doing just that, it is trying to execute what was agreed upon in Geneva. But, with great regret, the other Western and regional countries who took part are speaking only with the Syrian opposition and are not speaking with the government. And they are not only speaking with them, they are encouraging them to fight in Syria and to fight until victory," Lavrov told reporters at a post-talks press conference

Brahimi, however, said the Geneva Declaration should be the basis for a new UN Security Council resolution, something, Lavrov said, was not needed.

Brahimi said there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria, which has left more than 30,000 dead, according to activists on the ground.

"The bloodshed that is taking place, the shedding of innocent blood, will not lead to victory for any of the parties. There is no military solution to the Syrian crisis. The only thing that can take place is that either there will be a political solution, and a political process that all involved agree upon, or that Syria's future will be disastrous and that the crisis will not remain confined inside the borders of Syria, but rather will spread in all certainty to the neighboring countries and perhaps those far afield," Brahimi said sitting alongside Lavrov.

Lavrov is on a Middle East tour, days after a tenuous cease-fire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha broke down.

Russia has been criticized in the Arab world for backing Assad.

The talks in Cairo come on the same day that Syria's splintered opposition factions started talks in Qatar.

On the agenda is a U.S.-backed proposal to set up a new 50-member leadership team with more representatives from inside Syria.

Under the plan, called the Syrian National Initiative, the new leadership would include representatives of the rebels' Free Syrian army, political groups and local councils in Syria.

George Sabra, spokesperson for the Syrian National Council, said the opposition needed to plot strategy to quicken what they hope will be the fall of Assad.

"For us in the [Syrian] National Council, we have made a decision to partake in negotiations and talks with other opposition movements in order to discover the duties of the forthcoming period and the necessary role we need to play as Syrian opposition figures in order to speed up the fall of the regime and starting a new phase of transition of the country to freedom and democracy," Sabra said.

U.S. officials have long complained that the opposition disarray has held back more robust foreign involvement behind the opposition in its fight to topple Assad.