“An initial deal has been signed. The evening session will be for electing the president of the body and his deputy,” Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, a Muslim Brotherhood delegate at the talks, told Reuters.

The United States and Qatar have pushed the SNC, largely made up of exiles to join an assembly proposed by prominent Syrian dissident Riad Seif that would include armed rebel groups fighting in Syria.

The deal, an initiative by Seif, envisages the formation of a transitional government, a military council to oversee rebel groups on the ground and a judiciary to operate in rebel-held areas.

The Doha meeting is seen as the most serious push yet to form a united front in which many figures from the Syrian opposition are taking part to help end the 20-month crisis that has killed over 36,000 people.

“We have started an open dialogue with our brothers and looked at their initiative,” the SNC’s new leader George Sabra said earlier in Doha before the coalition formation announcement, according to AFP.

“But we have our own point of view and our own ideas that we plan to put forward.”

Meanwhile, at least 70 people were killed in Syria yesterday while President Bashar al-Assad’s regime told Japan to cancel its plan to meet at the end of this month with other nations about further sanctions against his country.

SANA state TV also reported that three car bombings by “terrorists” in the city of Daraa killed seven people yesterday.

Yesterday’s unrest comes a day after some 9,000 people fled the country within 24 hours, according to a UNHCR official.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing in the village of Ziyara in the central province of Hama was carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist group. Activists from the area reported that the operation was in coordination with other armed rebel groups.

The attack was one of the deadliest on pro-regime forces since the start of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assadin March last year.

The observatory also reported that more than 20 rebel fighters were killed by a fighter jet air-strike on the town of Harem in the northern province of Idlib. A rebel leader in the town was also seriously injured and is thought to be dead.

State-run TV SANA and the Britain-based Observatory said a car bomb attack had also killed 11 people and wounded dozens in the west Damascus district of Mazzeh.

The rebels have scored significant gains in recent weeks and now hold swathes of territory in the country’s north, but have struggled to gain ground in and around Damascus and in the commercial hub Aleppo amid heavy bombardment from government air power, according to AFP.

The escalating conflict has added importance to a meeting of the Syrian National Council in Qatar, where Washington is pushing for an overhaul of the opposition as U.S. officials have expressed disappointment with the SNC’s inability to create a consistent plan and its lack of agreement and cooperation with different internal groups.

Syrian opposition factions were at odds Monday in talks seeking to forge unity Washington says is needed to oust the Assad regime.

The Syrian National Council, the main exiled opposition coalition, based Turkey, disagreed with a U.S.-backed proposal to set up a larger umbrella group the BBC reported.

The new group, proposed by well-known exiled dissident Riad Seif, would include representation of rebel fighters, opposition military councils and minority groups.