US sees progress in Syria talks with Russia, expects meeting soon

The United States said it was making progress with Russia on how to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Syria and held out the possibility a nationwide ceasefire need not begin immediately, Reuters reported.

"We continue to feel like we are making progress, and believe we are making progress, on some of the remaining issues, but we are not going to settle," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at his daily briefing in Washington.

He said US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were expected to meet "very soon" but that he did not have a time or place to announce.

Toner said any agreement had to chart a clear path on how it would be implemented, and suggested that a nationwide cessation of hostilities did not have to start right away.