Monday's meeting comes a day after face-to-face negotiations in Geneva between Syrian government representatives and the foreign-backed opposition yielded the limited deal on the evacuations.

British-based activist Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the meeting in Homs is trying to find a safe area to where women and children could be taken.

It's not clear when the evacuation would begin.

Syria's Al-Ikhbariya TV quotes Homs governor, Talal Barrazi, as saying the arrangement "has nothing to do with what is being done in the Geneva talks."

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Sunday armed groups were preventing women and children from leaving the besieged area of Homs.

"I have been personally involved over the past two years to get these women and children out of the Old City of Homs... In all these attempts we have been prevented by the armed groups, who did not allow a single person out," Mekdad stated.

RA/NJF