"We advocate holding the international conference (on Syria) in mid-November," Lavrov told journalists after holding talks with his US counterpart John Kerry in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday.

"Today we agreed on the steps needed for both the government and the opposition to come to the conference," Lavrov said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the start of the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria was a "good beginning" and, in unusual praise for Damascus, said Syria's government should be given credit for complying with a recent UN resolution to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.

"It is a good beginning and we should welcome a good beginning," he added.

Kerry characterized his meeting with Lavrov as "one of the most productive we have had", saying they spoke at length about ways to bring warring parties in Syria together for talks in Geneva, known as Geneva 2.

"We agreed again there is no military solution here,” Kerry said, adding “we re-committed today very specific efforts to move the Geneva process as rapidly as possible."

He said both sides would seek to "lay the groundwork for a round of talks."

"It is our mutual hope that that can happen in November and we are both intent and determined in consultations with our friends in these efforts to try to make certain this can happen in November," Kerry said, adding "A final date and terms of participation will have to be determined by the United Nations."

The so-called Geneva-2 peace conference aims to bring together the warring sides in Syria where more than 115,000 people have been killed since the start of violence in March 2011, according to activists.

RA/SHI