Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu rejected earlier reports that he would meet his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad later this month. He said in a live broadcast on Thursday that the meeting can take place early in February.

Çavuşoğlu said there was no set date for the meeting but it would be held "as soon as possible."

A senior Turkish official told Reuters on Wednesday that a meeting could be scheduled before the middle of next week, but Çavuşoğlu said it would not happen that soon. "We have said before that there were some propositions for a date for next week but that they did not suit us. It could be in the beginning of February, we are working on a date," he said.

The Turkish and Syrian defense ministers held landmark talks in Moscow last month to discuss border security and other issues. Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he may meet Assad after a trilateral foreign ministerial meeting.

The conflict in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and drawn in regional and world powers, has ground on into a second decade, although fighting has mellowed down.