The US secretary of state, John Kerry, told western foreign ministers that he hoped to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva over the next 48 hours, to try to agree a new cessation of hostilities in Syria.

The two men had been hoping to announce a deal at the G20 in China on Monday, but the agreement collapsed in acrimony after the US accused Russia of reneging on its previous commitments.

Explaining the decision to schedule a new meeting, the Russian foreign ministry said: “The ministers worked through the remaining details of the agreement on the establishment of a Russian-American cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups operating in Syria, the expansion of access for humanitarian aid and the launch of an intra-Syrian political process.”

Image: The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his US counterpart, Barack Obama, at the G20 in China. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images