From VOA Learning English,this is In the News.International effortsto bring an end to the conflict in Syriagot off to a bad start on Friday.Talks between the Syrian governmentand the opposition coalition openedin Geneva, Switzerland.But the two sides refused to hold direct negotiations.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualemis leading the government delegation.He announced he would leaveif the talks do not get serious by Saturday.At the same time, a leader of the opposition delegationrejected the idea of face-to-face negotiations.Badr Jamous said there will be no direct talksuntil the government team acceptswhat is called the Geneva 1 communique.That document is supposed to be the starting point for the talks.The Geneva 1 communique calls forthe establishment of a temporary government in Syria.The opposition and its allies saythat means Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave office.The president and his allies disagree.The United Nations and Arab League diplomat Lakhdar Brahimiis taking part in the talks between the government and the opposition.He met with the two sides separately on Friday.The diplomat had predicted that this kind of disputemight delay the talks.But he expressed hope that he could get the two delegationsto sit down together.Late Friday, Mr. Brahimi said the talks will continue on Saturday,in his words, "in the same room."Observers had predicted such difficulties.On Wednesday, the Syrian foreign minister and opposition leadermade conflicting statements at an international conferencein nearby Montreux, Switzerland.David Butter is a Syria expert with London's Chatham House.He sees little hope of progress during the current talks."Both Syrian sides have got very different objectives going into it.And also, it's in a context where you can't really seeeither party to the internal conflictactually having any sort of decisive advantage,which would be the basis of some sort of bargaining process."The distrust is making it difficult for the negotiations to move forward.The UN says more than nine million Syrians urgently need aidand many of them cannot be reached because of the fighting.The three-year long Syrian conflicthas killed an estimated 100 thousand people.For weeks, diplomats have been preparing for the talks in Switzerland.Last Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Iranto take part in the one-day meeting at Montreux.But the Syrian National Coalition,threatened to boycott the talks if they included Iran.The United States said the only way Iran could take partwas by supporting the establishment of a temporary governmentin Syria with full executive powers.This was an idea presented in the "Geneva 1 Communique".But, Iran has refused to say it supports the communique.That forced Mr. Ban's spokesman to announcethat Iran would not be attending the meeting in Montreux,nor the talks in Geneva.And that's In the News from VOA Learning English.With a reminder: For the latest information on this story,go to VOA's main website: 51voa.com