Syria 'friends' defend arming rebels in Qatar forum

Foreign ministers of the Friends of Syria group, who are meeting in Qatar, have defended the arming of rebels who are fighting President Bashar al-Assad. John Kerry insists the US is not looking for a military solution Qatar's PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani said "providing arms may be the only means of achieving peace".
But he and US Secretary of State John Kerry said the policy was simply to achieve balance and bring Syria's government to the negotiating table.
More than 90,000 people have died in more than two years of conflict.
The Syrian government says it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".
'Balance' The Friends of Syria group includes the US, Britain, France and Germany as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.
The meeting in Qatar's capital, Doha, comes a week after the US announced it would provide Syrian rebels with "direct military aid".
That decision followed what the US said was evidence of small-scale chemical weapon attacks by the government.
The Friends of Syria group was set up in response to moves by Russia and China to block UN resolutions on Syria.
On Saturday, the Qatari PM said that "failure to reach an agreement in the UN Security Council will not stop us moving forward".
He said that moral support for the rebels was not sufficient, adding: "A balance must be achieved on the ground so the regime can accept negotiations."
Mr Kerry said again that the Syrian government had crossed a line in using chemical weapons
But he insisted that the decision to provide military support to the rebels was "not to seek a military solution" but to give the rebels more power in negotiating an end to the conflict.
Mr Kerry said the group was still pushing for a peace conference in Geneva between the two opposing sides in Syria.
But he said Mr Assad had responded to the calls for a conference by bringing in Iranian and Hezbollah fighters to confront the rebels, an act he said "should concern nations all around the world".
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague accepted some in Syria would be disillusioned by the lack of action in the international community.
But he said: "The only worse thing than these meetings happening would be these meetings not happening."
He said the UK government had taken no decision to arm the rebels.
The rebels have suffered a series of military setbacks recently.
But on Friday, they said they had received new weapons that could lead to "changes" in the civil war.
A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army said they had not come from the US.
"We've received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground," FSA spokesman Louay Muqdad told AFP news agency.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin again warned the West against arming the Syrian opposition.
Speaking in St Petersburg during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he said he feared a "political void" would be filled by "terrorist organisations" if Mr Assad were to leave power.
New offensive On the ground in Syria on Saturday, government forces were reported to have stepped up their attacks on rebel positions north of the capital, Damascus.
The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported activists as saying there had been heavy shelling in a number of districts.
But the rebels said they had declared a new offensive of their own in the northern city Aleppo, the last major rebel stronghold.
They are attempting to capture government-held areas in the west of the city, Syria's largest.