Russia's Putin, Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev discuss Syria on phone

Reuters - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed the Syria crisis by phone, the Kremlin said on Saturday, after peace talks in Kazakhstan closed without any substantive negotiations.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin and Nazarbayev exchanged views over the third round of talks on the Syria crisis in the Kazakh capital of Astana this week, but gave no further details.

The Astana talks ended without progress after rebels boycotted the meeting.

The talks are run by Russia, Turkey and Iran, backers of the warring sides, and have little U.N. involvement. Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to hold the next meeting in Astana on May 3 and 4.