The United States said it will boost its support for Syria’s armed opposition Thursday on the sidelines of 11-nation Friends of Syria meeting in Rome.

The United States said it will boost its support for Syria’s armed opposition Thursday on the sidelines of 11-nation Friends of Syria meeting in Rome.

The new US Secretary of State John Kerry met for about an hour with Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Moaz Al-Khatib before the meeting kicked off at the 16th-century Villa Madama on a hilltop above Rome.

Official statements were due at the end of the talks, but Kerry has already said the opposition needs "more help" in the fight against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and that Washington wants to speed up the crisis-hit country's political transition.

Rome talks come two days before another meeting of the “Syrian National Coalition” on Saturday in Istanbul, where the group is to elect a “prime minister and government to run parts of Syria,” that it claims were seized by militants.

For his part, Kerry added that “we are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people seek and deserve, and that is what we will be discussing in Rome.”

He said he wanted to hear from Khatib about how best to put an end to the clashes in Syria, indicating that there is “a desire to help the opposition deliver assistance and basic services in areas it has liberated from the regime".