Annan raises 'grave concern' to Assad over violence

At least 62 persons, mostly soldiers and rebels, were killed in violence across Syria on Saturday, the first of a two-day visit by international peace envoy Kofi Annan, a monitor said.

Among them were 21 army deserters, 19 soldiers and 22 civilians, who were killed in fighting in the northwestern province of Idlib, whose capital city was stormed by ground troops on Saturday evening, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another seven civilians died in Damascus and Homs.

International envoy Kofi Annan expressed "grave concern" to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad over the deadly crackdown on protests in talks Saturday, the United Nations said.

The former UN secretary general "put several proposals on the table regarding stopping the violence and the killing, access for humanitarian agencies and the ICRC, release of detainees, and the start of an inclusive political dialogue," said a UN statement.

It gave no details of the proposals.

Annan, on his first trip to Damascus since being named joint envoy by the UN and Arab League, "expressed grave concern at the situation in Syria and urged the president to take concrete steps to end the current crisis."

The envoy and Syrian president will meet again Sunday, the statement added.

Annan described his first talks as "candid and comprehensive."

He went on to meet "opposition leaders and young activists, as well as prominent businessmen and businesswomen," the statement said.

Annan will go on from Damascus to Doha, Qatar on Sunday.