Syria ceasefire

Trump and Putin: Syria ceasefire heads leaders' agenda

The two spoke by telephone for the first time since the US launched air strikes against Syria nearly a month ago, straining relations.

White House and Kremlin statements suggested a productive conversation.

Other topics discussed included North Korea and the timing of a future face-to-face meeting.

Mr Trump ordered air strikes after a chemical weapons attack blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's ally. The Russians which blamed Syrian rebels for the use of illegal nerve gas.

Syria ceasefire: Emergency aid expected soon for Aleppo

It is hoped that emergency aid deliveries will start on Wednesday.

Russian forces are monitoring the ceasefire along a key access road in northern Syria that leads to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, reports say.

Some 250,000 civilians are trapped there.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said if the truce held, aid deliveries "should be taking place very, very soon".

He said the UN was waiting for the Syrian government to authorise deliveries and he hoped the people of Syria could look forward to "no bombs and more trucks".

Syria ceasefire: 'No civilian deaths on first day'

UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded no civilian deaths in the first 15 hours of the truce.

Residents in the embattled northern city of Aleppo reported calm.

UN officials say they are ready to deliver aid to besieged areas but need better guarantees of peace.

The Syrian government says it will not allow aid, particularly "from the Turkish regime", to be delivered to Aleppo without prior co-ordination with it and the UN, state media report.