Russia is considering expanding a three-hour daily ceasefire in Aleppo, the UN envoy for Syria said Thursday, insisting a 48-hour halt in fighting was needed to bring in aid.
Staffan de Mistura said Moscow had not consulted with the United Nations before announcing its decision to hold its fire around Syria's war-ravaged second city for three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid in, insisting the pause was inadequate.
"Any pause obviously should always be seen and looked at with great interest, because a pause means no fighting, but three hours is not enough," the UN Syria envoy told reporters in Geneva.
The UN has called for urgent aid access to Aleppo and 48-hour weekly pauses for the aid deliveries, warning that civilians are at grave risk from water shortages and disease as fighting has intensified.
An estimated 1.5 million people still live in the battered city, including about 250,000 in rebel-held eastern districts.
De Mistura said the issue had been discussed extensively at the weekly meeting of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, and that Russia has voiced its willingness to expand the pause.
"The Russian reaction here at the taskforce was 'we heard you, (and) we need to talk in order to see how we can improve our original proposal'," he said.
De Mistura's deputy and the head of a UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland also voiced hope that fighting could stop for long enough to make a true difference.
"(The Russians) say they would like to sit down with us... and discuss how a UN proposal could be implemented, and we are hopeful that that will lead to something," he told reporters.
Russia, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has vowed that it will halt its air strikes and artillery strikes between 0700 GMT and 1000 GMT for an unspecified period, starting Thursday.
But an AFP correspondent in the eastern districts said trucks carrying food and other products were unable to enter the city Thursday because of intense bombardment.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 290,000 people and drawn in world powers on both sides since it erupted in March 2011.