Awaiting 'action' after Kerry comments: Assad

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday he was waiting for US "actions" after Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged talks with Damascus were necessary to end the country's conflict.

"We are still listening to the comments and we have to wait for the actions and then we'll decide," Assad told Iranian television in comments in Damascus broadcast on Syrian state television.

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The comments were the first since Kerry said in an interview aired on Sunday that Washington would be willing to talk to Assad.

"Well, we have to negotiate in the end," Kerry said, when asked by CBS television if he would negotiate with the Syrian leader.

Kerry's spokeswoman later stressed that the comments indicated no change in US policy, saying "there is no future for a brutal dictator like Assad in Syria." But Syrian media touted the statement as a reversal in US policy that acknowledged Assad's "legitimacy".