No future for Assad: EU

President Bashar al-Assad has no future in post-conflict Syria but his fate is ultimately up to the Syrian people, EU foreign ministers said yesterday in response to an apparent shift in US policy.

The United States and the European Union have consistently demanded Assad stand down in any peace deal.

But last week Washington signalled it would no longer focus on Assad's ouster as it concentrates on the wider fight against terror groups such as Islamic State.

Asked what this meant for EU policy, bloc foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said she believed it "would be impossible" to return to the status quo in Syria.

After nearly seven years of war, "it seems completely unrealistic to believe that the future of Syria will be exactly the same as it used to be in the past," Mogherini said as she arrived for an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

"But this is for the Syrians to decide, that is clear ... any solution that can be acceptable by all Syrians, we will support it."

The foreign ministers later endorsed a statement which noted: "The EU recalls that there can be no lasting peace in Syria under the current regime."

It said some 13.5 million Syrians were now in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria while another five million had sought refuge in neighbours, such as Turkey and other regional countries.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists said government forces have intensified their bombardment of opposition-held areas around Damascus and the central city of Hama.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Damascus suburbs of Eastern Ghouta, as well as areas on the eastern edges of the capital, were hit by at least 50 airstrikes yesterday morning.

The activist group says scores of airstrikes also targeted the countryside north of Hama, reported AP.

Syrian state media said government forces have reclaimed the village of Maardes after losing it to rebels two weeks ago.

Syrian rebels and al-Qaeda-linked fighters launched twin attacks on the contested areas two weeks ago. They reached within 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, of Hama, Syria's fourth largest city, before government forces and allied militias stopped the advance.