"Many forces have joined hands here on Saturday ... don't underestimate the degree of a shift that happened particularly in the Russian and Chinese positions to accept the principle of a policy change," Ahmad Fawzi said.

He said reports out of Beijing and Moscow had been "very supportive" of the agreement made at the meeting.

"Let's wait until the dust settles on this agreement and I think everyone will see that it was quite an accomplishment that was achieved here on Saturday."

This included an agreement in principle on a political transition, he said, but a complete halt to the violence was vital first.

"It's imperative that we get a ceasefire," said Fawzi.

He also said exiting the crisis in Syria would not be without its troubles despite agreement at the ministerial meeting.

"It's going to be a long, bumpy road," he said, "but we believe that commitments made in Geneva were genuine and if applied as promised will have an effect on the dynamics on the ground."

World powers agreed a transition plan Saturday with a unity government to include members of the present administration.

Annan convened the crunch talks to try to resurrect his six point peace plan with the help of countries with influence on the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad whose crackdown on the revolt marked the beginning of the crisis in March last year.

Fawzi said the proposals on the table formed a framework for a solution.

"This was a very finely crafted diplomatic document and the solution to the crisis lies therein," he said.

"If you go to the agreed actions that the group members will take to implement the agreement you will see that they have committed to apply joint and sustained pressure on the parties in Syria.

He said Qatar, Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait were among those countries who would exercise their influence on the Syrian parties.

"I think you will understand what kind of leverage they have, what kind of taps can be turned off or on that might influence the behaviour of the parties." he said.

The UN human agency on Tuesday welcomed the Geneva talks, saying the six point plan was the only solution in sight.

"For that to work violence has to stop and the flow of arms also needs to stop," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"If the violence doesn't stop on the part of the government forces, the shabhia etc, we can't really expect the flow of arms to stop.

"The two are linked inextricably."

"The actions of the Turkish plane were no doubt a provocation. Otherwise how would you explain the fact that the fighter jet flew two, albeit short, sorties in the Syrian airspace?"

"The crew had to have only one motive for such actions -- to test the combat readiness of the Syrian air defence systems and it indeed tested them. And also to conduct a reconnaissance of the strength and capabilities of the Syrian air defence systems in the coastal direction," it said.

The source quoted by Interfax did not make clear where the information came from.

"In any case, the crew of the Turkish Phantom have tried hard to literally ask for the Syrian air defences' fire," the source was quoted as saying.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad -- whose government is locked in a deadly conflict with the opposition -- said this week he regretted that his country's defence forces shot down Turkey's F-4 Phantom jet but insisted the plane was in Syrian airspace.

He said the soldier who shot down the plane had no radar and could not know to which country the plane belonged.

Turkey viewed the loss of its fighter jet as a hostile act and has taken steps to fortify its border with Syria.

China wants 'spirit' of Syria deal followed
Beijing (AFP) July 4, 2012 - China said Wednesday its position on plans for a transition of power in Syria remained firm, and that it wanted the "spirit" of a weekend agreement by world powers to be followed.

The plan for a transition in Syria to end the violence there was agreed Sunday, but divisions emerged immediately with Western countries saying President Bashar al-Assad should be excluded from a new unity government.

Russia and China insisted then that Syrians must decide how the transition should be carried out, rather than allow others to dictate their fate, and did not rule out Assad remaining in power in some form.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Wednesday that China's position on the issue was "unchanged".

"China believes that the urgent task is that the spirit of the communique of the action group on the Syrian issue should be implemented," he said.

Liu indicated China may not attend a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Paris on Friday aimed at coordinating Western and Arab efforts to stop the violence in the Middle East country.

"I haven't heard of the information that China will attend the meeting," Liu said, when asked about the gathering, without commenting further.

China did not attend the previous two "Friends of Syria" meetings in Tunis and Istanbul this year.

Russia, a long-time ally of Assad's government, has already said it will not attend the meeting.

Fighting in Syria has intensified in recent weeks as government and opposition forces have received more weapons from their foreign backers.

Monitors say the conflict has killed more than 16,500 people since March last year.