Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host a summit on the Syria conflict with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France on October 27th in Istanbul, AFP reported Friday (October 19th), the first such gathering with key EU leaders.

The summit will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as French and German leaders Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said, cited by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan has on three times attended trilateral summits on Syria with Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. But this is the first time a meeting will bring the Turkish and Russian strongmen together with the EU's two most significant national leaders.

The meeting will aim to find a "long-lasting solution" to the Syria conflict as well as the situation in the last major Syrian opposition-held bastion of Idlib, Kalin said.

Erdogan had previously planned to host the international summit in September, but it did not take place then. The Kremlin, Elysee and Merkel's office all also confirmed the date of the October 27th meeting.

The Kremlin said the Istanbul summit will include "exchanging views on the Syria issue, including the question of advancing the process of a political settlement as well as further steps in the interest of strengthening security and stability".

France primarily wants to ensure the Idlib ceasefire is maintained to avert a "humanitarian catastrophe and a new mass wave of refugees", the Elysee said in a statement.

An Elysee source also warned that Macron would reconsider his plan to attend if any regime assault was launched on Idlib.

Merkel's spokesperson Martina Fietz said Berlin wanted to work towards a process of stabilisation in Syria.

"We expect that we can make progress towards a stabilisation in Syria, knowing that this process will be very complicated and will take years."