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Download US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for the immediate cessation of all violence in Syria and voiced their full support for the UN peace plan on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Meanwhile, China urged all parties in Syria to meet their commitments to cease the violence, ensure the safety of the UN observer mission and fully implement the six-point plan sponsored by Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria. With the bloodshed in Syria getting worse, the talks at the G20 summit tested whether Obama and Putin could forge a working relationship. It was their first meeting since Putin's return to the presidency last month, and the two leaders sought to paper over disputes on arming Damascus and the prospects for further UN action. "We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future," the leaders said. Putin told reporters that he and Obama had found many common points on the 15-month-old uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Obama said he and Putin agreed on the need for a "political process" to halt the conflict and had pledged to work with Kofi Annan. But there was little sign they had agreed on concrete means to end the conflict. The US, Britain and France are working on a new UN Council resolution to threaten sanctions against Assad. | 
