Al-Jazeera correspondent said that wide differences dominated the second round of meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee held in Geneva, with the failure of the international envoy to hold a meeting between the three blocs participating.

The correspondent added that the delegation of the Syrian regime left the United Nations building and went to his residence, while members of the civil society bloc threatened to suspend their participation unless the Syrian regime stops bombing civilians.

Syrian state television reported that the regime's delegation left the UN headquarters in Geneva on Monday because it had not received a response on its proposal to set an agenda.

In contrast, opposition spokesman Yahya Aridi said that the constitutional committee did not meet today because there is no agreement on the program or the schedule of talks.

He added that the head of the constitutional committee by the government presented "something" which he considered a schedule, including the fight against terrorism, lifting sanctions and condemning what he called the Turkish invasion, describing the government's demands as political.

Opposition member Basma Qadamani said her side last week proposed an agenda for structured talks, but received no response.

"Now the government delegation comes up with an agenda and says it wants to discuss basic national principles as a set of preconditions for constitutional talks," Basma told Reuters.

The opposition was prepared to discuss these conditions within the constitutional framework and not outside. "The purpose of the approach proposed by the system is to buy time."

A UN spokeswoman said the UN special envoy, Geir Pedersen, had met with the commission's regime and opposition leaders and was continuing his consultations with a view to resuming its work. "The situation is deadlocked," a Western diplomat said.

Russia warns
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the UN envoy's office against interference in the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, stressing the need to achieve what he called equitable geographical representation of the staff of the UN mission.

Lavrov also called on the United Nations to prevent attempts to interfere in this process.

Forty-five delegates forming the commission drafting the constitution arrived at the UN headquarters in Geneva on Monday. The group has 15 members from both the government, opposition and civil society organizations, but they have not come together.

The talks are aimed at making progress in what the United Nations says is a long road to political rapprochement followed by elections.

But experts question whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be willing to do much in the negotiations after his Russian and Iranian-backed forces recaptured large swathes of territory in attacks on opposition fighters since 2015.