Russia, Iran and Turkey on Friday (September 15th) agreed a deal to jointly police a fourth safe zone around Syria's Idlib province as part of a plan to ease the six-year conflict, AFP reported.

In a joint statement after two days of talks in Kazakhstan, the three said they had agreed "to allocate" their forces to patrol the zone covering opposition-held Idlib province and parts of neighbouring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo regions.

Russia had previously deployed military police to patrol the boundaries of three zones agreed in the south of Syria, in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, and in part of the central Homs province.

The statement said the forces would be deployed in Idlib according to maps agreed earlier this month in Ankara, but gave no further details of their exact positions.

A joint Russia-Turkish-Iranian co-ordination centre will be set up "aimed at co-ordinating activities of de-escalation forces", it said.

Both the Syrian regime and the armed opposition sent delegations to the talks.

The joint declaration also stated that further talks would be held in Astana at the end of October.