The coalition’s leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib announced Monday on Facebook that his group will now attend the Friends of Syria meeting after consultations with its members and others, as well as based on remarks by senior diplomats from the United States and the UK.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in remarks in Berlin today that Syrian rebels should be given aid if President Bashar al- Assad refuses to join talks and goes on killing his own people.

Initially, the Syrian National Coalition threatened to boycott the Friends of Syria meeting to protest what it sees as a lack of effective action from the international community.

For his part, Syria’s foreign minister has said that his government is ready to hold talks with all parties, including armed rebels who want dialogue to end the crisis in the country .

Walid al-Muallem made the comments on Monday in Moscow before talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

The unrest began in March 2011, when al-Assad’s government began a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.

The protest movement eventually evolved into an armed conflict, one that has cost the lives of more than 70,000 Syrians to flee to neighboring nations, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.

Over an eight-week period from mid-December, 255,000 Syrians fled their country. Out of the 860,000 refugee total, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are together sheltering 97 per cent of them.

Humanitarian agencies are trying to keep up with the rising needs. The World Food Programme is scaling up to meet the needs of 2.5 million people by April.

Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his team have made a positive start and “have handled the political situation quite well,” a source close to the troika representatives told Reuters. According to the news agency story, the Greek Premier has shifted the political agenda away from the populist promises of his campaign and seems determined to pass a package of tough austerity measures that include cuts in wages and reduction in the number of civil servants, positively surprising many EU officials and the IMF.

The government is proceeding to cuts in special payrolls of uniformed officers, academics, NHS doctors and justice officials; the reductions range from 6% to 35%, according to protothema.gr. The cuts will be scaled, with the lowest rates imposed on uniformed personnel (military, police, firefighters, and port officers) and the highest ones on justice employees. It will be applied retroactively from 1 July 2012 and will save state cofers aroung EUR 360 million.The cuts include the elimination of automatic wage promotions for Security Forces, which will cause new income losses that the unionists of the industry. The clipping at the earnings of justice officials will be much larger as according to information, the weighted average reduction will exceed 20%, reaching 35% for highly paid magistrates.The economic team estimates that the cuts for AEI – TEI professors will begin at 5% for earnings up to EUR 1,000 per month and will reach 30% for those academics who receive more than EUR 2,500. Average losses are calculated at 17.5%. Doctors in the NHS system will see their salaries cut by 13% on average, while reductions for diplomats and high-ranking clergy will be close to 20%.

“Many of these cutbacks are difficult, painful,” Samaras said. “But they are also inevitable. For without them the country would return to zero credibility and effectively leave the euro. Which would… destroy the country.”

Talking about his recent trips to Berlin and Paris, Samaras said “first of all we changed the climate in Europe which was the first condition to remain in the euro. If we want to have a recovery we must stick to the euro and also bring liquidity to our economy. We regained some of our credibility and told the Europe leadership that we need recovery. We asked Europe to stop the harsh statements against our country,” the PM said, protothema.gr writes.

A draft of the austerity package list was given yesterday to coalition leaders, who will meet again, before next week’s visit by the EC-ECB-IMF troika.

According to Kathimerini.gr, austerity cuts being proposed are even harsher than expected. These include the abolition of the traditional holiday payments (at Easter, Christmas and summer) for all pensioners, not just former civil servants (savings EUR 2.5 billion). It also emerged that the ax will likely fall on all pensions above EUR 800, with cuts starting at 2% and reaching 20% for the highest levels. The government hopes to raise EUR 4.5 billion through pension cuts alone.

The proposed package also foresees fresh cuts to healthcare (EUR 1.3 billion), some EUR 500 million of cutbacks in defense and EUR 750 million in cutbacks to local authority subsidies.

Cuts to special payrolls of certain categories of civil servants such as judicial and military staff as well as priests will reach 12%, according to the proposal, which aims to raise EUR 800 million in this area. It is likely that police officers and other members of security forces with dangerous jobs, will be excluded from this measure.

As for civil servants, the likely scenario involves between 35,000 and 40,000 employees leaving the public sector by 2014, either through early retirement or for failing to pass an evaluation. Another 110,000 are to leave the service by 2015 either through retirement or the termination of their contracts, Kathimerini.gr writes.

According to protothema.gr, disagreement remains within the coalition as regards cuts of pension bonuses, main pensions and special payrolls, as well as disability benefits, all discussed during Wednesday’s night meeting between the leaders of the three ruling parties.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras will meet the heads of the troika on Sunday (Sep. 9), to present the new austerity package, a finance ministry official said yesterday.

Troika officials are to arrive on September 5 and travel to Nicosia on September 13 ahead of a Eurogroup summit there on September 14.

Yesterday, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras met with cabinet colleagues to discuss cuts in special payrolls in civil service, with uniform employees to remain the big issue. Media report proposals to foresee reductions of 6% for armed forces employees and of 20% for judicial employees.

A European spokesman indicated that a much-awaited report on Greece’s economic reform progress would probably be ready in early October, according to Kathimerini. “The troika will return to Athens in early September to begin the concluding phase of the first review of the second program for Greece,” Simon O’Connor, spokesman for European Monetary and Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, told reporters, adding that the envoys’ mission was expected to “take several weeks.” According to a report in Germany’s Rheinische Post, the report will be out in “early October” due to delays in moving forward with privatizations.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister sent out a message of optimism at the Acropolis Museum, during a brief speech on the presentation of the historic silver cup awarded to Spyros Louis in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. “Today, Greece takes part in a whole new marathon. It is an event, which tests the strength, the will and the athlete. This contest can be won through the heart and the mind,” said Antonis Samaras. “So we will win this marathon,” he said, expressing optimism that Greece will overcome all obstacles.