Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked Russia to broker talks with opposition groups in a bid to end 11 months of violence in the Middle Eastern country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks in Damascus today, according to a pool report from Russian news service Itar-Tass.

--Editors: Brad Cook.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brad Cook at bcook7@bloomberg.net