Annan wants new strategy to end Syria conflict

Against the backdrop of a new massacre in Syria, international envoy Kofi Annan on Thursday will propose tasking a group of world powers and key regional players including Iran to come up with a strategy to end the 15-month conflict, UN diplomats said.

Annan will present the United Nations with a plan for creating a "contact group" whose final proposal must be acceptable to Syria's allies Russia and China, which have blocked all UN action, as well as the US and its European allies, who insist that President Bashar Assad must go, they said. (AP)