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The leaders of Russia, France and Germany arrived in Istanbul on Saturday for a four-nation summit aiming to find a lasting political solution to the Syrian civil war and salvage a fragile ceasefire in a rebel-held northwestern province, France 24 reported.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Friday that the primary goal would be to “clarify the steps to be taken for a political solution and to determine a roadmap”.

Forming a commission to create Syria’s post-war constitution, seen as a stepping stone to staging elections in the war-torn country, would be a particular point of emphasis, Kalin told the state-run news agency Anadolu.

The talks will also look to extend a ceasefire around the last major rebel-held bastion of Idlib, where aid groups have warned that a military offensive could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the seven-year war.