The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria began meeting with senior diplomats in Geneva Tuesday in a new push to prepare a long-delayed peace conference amid disagreement over who will take part.

Lakhdar Brahimi began talks with Russian deputy foreign ministers Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman at 10:00 am (0900 GMT) at the UN's European headquarters.

The meeting is set to be broadened later to include representatives of the three other permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, France and Britain.

The United Nations announced at the last minute that representatives of Syria's neighbours -- Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as of the UN and the Arab League would also take part in the wider meeting set to begin at 4:30 pm.

The talks aim to pave the way for a new international conference, dubbed Geneva II, focused on ending the spiralling 31-month conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes.

But it remains unclear if the parties will manage to agree on who should participate.