Diplomats forge new track to end Syria violence but no truce

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, attend a bilateral meeting where they discussed the crisis in Syria, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Pool Photo via AP) (The Associated Press)

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, and Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, from left, attend a meeting where they discussed the crisis in Syria, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Pool Photo via AP) (The Associated Press)

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, waves as he is greeted by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ahead of a meeting on the situation in Syria, at Lancaster House in London, Sunday Oct. 16, 2016. Renewing the international effort to solve the conflict in Syria, heightened by the plight of people in the city of Aleppo, have made little progress but more talks are planned. ( JUSTIN TALLIS / Pool via AP) (The Associated Press)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – New ideas are being proposed and more talks are being prepared but there is no quick resolution in sight for Syria's agony.

A U.S.-hosted meeting of major world and regional powers made only piecemeal headway on creating a multilateral track for ending the beleaguered country's grinding war.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry convened top diplomats from Russia and regional powers like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran on Saturday for a 4 1/2-hour meeting in Switzerland. The talks came amid heightened urgency about the war's latest flashpoint, the city of Aleppo.

The fighting has killed a half-million people, sparked a refugee crisis and offered a territorial base to the radical Islamic State group.

Kerry's new approach comes after last month's U.S.-Russian bid to end the war collapsed in days.