The UN's deputy envoy for Syria said Thursday (September 22nd) that he hoped peace talks could resume in the coming weeks, despite "grim" events on the ground, AFP reported.

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy said his boss, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, was in discussion with warring parties to organise "direct negotiations", a departure from past rounds where the sides met separately with moderators.

The UN is working "with a view to holding these talks hopefully in the next few weeks", he said.

Regardless of the setbacks, he said, the UN "will never give up on the political process" to end Syria's five-year war, he added.

The latest truce brokered by the US and Russia has collapsed, but Ramzy insisted both "are determined to make the agreement work".

Meanwhile, fierce fighting rocked the Ramussa district on the south-western outskirts of Aleppo Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory said 14 strikes on the opposition-held neighbourhoods of Bustan al-Qasr and al-Kalasseh "led to massive fires" overnight.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said they were "the most intense strikes in months" on those two districts and had killed seven people, including three women and three children.