By Agencies

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The Red Cross says it is negotiating with the Syrian authorities and opposition fighters to try to bring a halt to violence in the country so it can deliver vital aid.

The announcement comes amid reports that Syria's opposition is to take part in an international conference in Tunis on Friday to which European Union and Arab League members as well as China, Russia and the US have been invited.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross is exploring several possibilities for delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid," Bijan Farnoudi, a spokesman for the ICRC in Geneva, said on Monday.

"These include the cessation of fighting in the most affected areas to facilitate swift Syrian Arab Red Crescent and ICRC access to the people in need."
 
He did not give explicit details on who was taking part in the talks, saying only that they were ongoing.
 
"The content of the discussions with the Syrian authorities and all those involved in the fighting remains confidential," Farnoudi said.
 
Rome conference
 
Earlier on Monday, Rafik Abdessalem, Tunisia's foreign minister, speaking after a meeting of Mediterranean region foreign ministers in Rome, Italy, said an agreement had been reached on the need to avoid "an Iraqi scenario" and preserve Syria's integrity.
 
"I don't think any Arab country is going to ask for military intervention [in Syria]. European countries don't want it either," Abdessalem said.
 
"We don't want an Iraqi scenario ... we have to preserve the integrity of Syria.

"We all agree on the need to urge the Syrian government to put an end to its suppression of demonstration. There are rights that should be secured for the people of Syria. They have a right to freedom and democracy."
 
Reversing an earlier position expressed on Friday, Abdessalem said: "The Syrian National Council [SNC], the largest Syrian opposition group and other opposition groups will be represented at the Tunis meeting."
 
Tunisia, which hosted a first international conference on Syria in December and broke off ties with the Assad government earlier this month, does not recognise the SNC as an official entity.
 
Arab League backed
 
Giulio Terzi , the Italian foreign minister, said his country wanted the Arab League's plan for Syria to be implemented.
 
The Arab League has called for the UN to approve a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force.

In the latest developments on the ground, Syrian troops massed around the central city of Homs, prompting calls for women and children to flee the besieged city, as Iranian warships docked at the port of Tartus in a show of force.

The reported build-up came as the top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said any intervention in Syria would be "very difficult" and that it was "premature" to arm the the opposition movement.

Separately, China's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily, accused Syria's opposition of stirring up a civil war there.

It said Arab and Western countries were paving the way for foreign intervention.

Earlier this month, China and Russia blocked a draft UN Security Council resolution that backed an Arab plan calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.