MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will keep supplying weapons to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime despite the country's escalating civil war, the head of Russia's state arms trader said Wednesday.

Russia on Wednesday also held out the prospect of bringing the two sides in the Syrian conflict together for talks in Moscow. Mikhail Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and special envoy to the Middle East, said Syria's foreign minister and the leader of the Syrian National Coalition are expected in Moscow in two to three weeks. He said no date for either visit has been set.

"We are prepared to provide the venue for Syrian talks if they want to meet in Moscow," Bogdanov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.