Russia hoped today a new ceasefire could be announced within hours for Syria's battered city of Aleppo, where fresh fighting including rocket fire on a maternity hospital left at least 19 dead.
As the city was struck by some of its heaviest reported clashes in days, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said efforts were under way to agree a freeze in the fighting.
"I am hoping that in the near future, maybe even in the next few hours, such a decision will be announced," Lavrov said after meeting UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Moscow.
France and Britain called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Aleppo, boosting the major push by world powers this week to end the fighting.
"Aleppo is burning and it is crucial that we focus on this top priority issue," said British ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft.
A February 27 truce between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels raised hopes for efforts to resolve the five-year conflict.
But it has all but collapsed amid renewed fighting, especially in Aleppo.
A surge of violence that erupted on April 22 has killed more than 270 people in the divided northern city and undermined efforts to revive peace talks.
After a relative lull yesterday and early today, rebels in eastern Aleppo fired at least 65 rockets into government-controlled neighbourhoods, said state news agency SANA.
The rockets killed 16 people and wounded 68, including at least three women at Al-Dabbeet maternity hospital, it reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said it had counted at least 19 dead and 80 wounded from the attacks on government-held areas.
An AFP correspondent saw the charred remains of a car outside the heavily damaged hospital building.
Fierce fighting also raged on Aleppo's western edges after rebels detonated explosives in a tunnel, the correspondent said, adding the clashes subsided at nightfall.
It was the most violent day for the city's regime-held west since clashes resumed 11 days ago.
New regime strikes also hit rebel-held eastern areas, dotting the city with thick plumes of smoke, another AFP correspondent reported.
