Russia sends warships to boost Bashar al-Assad

Russia has sent a flotilla of warships to its naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus in an apparent show of support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Two destroyers and three amphibious landing vessels carrying marines set sail from Russian bases in the Arctic and the Black Sea, according to Russian military sources.

Russia's defence ministry insisted that the mission was part of a previously scheduled exercise in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea and at least one of the vessels has patrolled waters off Syria earlier this year.

Western diplomats say the purpose of the mission is to show tangible support for Assad, to warn the West against military intervention in Syria and to prepare for the possible evacuation of Russian nationals from the country.

Russia renewed naval patrols in the Mediterranean in 2007 after a 15-year hiatus with a wider aim of expressing the country's military resurgence. It was unclear whether the ships heading for Syria were carrying weapons supplies or large numbers of marines.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria, sought regional support for his faltering peace plan in talks with senior officials in Iran and Iraq.

Annan, who said this week that he was working on a new proposal to end the fighting in Syria, said he believed that Iran could play a "positive role" in ending the crisis, despite its close relationship with the Assad regime.