Moscow said Tuesday that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any air strikes on the city of Aleppo for the last seven days and are upholding a moratorium on bombing.

"All flights by Russian and Syrian air forces have been completely halted in a 10-kilometre zone around Aleppo since October 18," senior military official Sergei Rudskoi said at a briefing.

"The moratorium on air strikes by Russian and Syrian planes around the city will be extended," he added, without specifying a timeframe.

A so-called "humanitarian pause" declared by Damascus and Moscow ran out at 1600 GMT on Saturday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there were air strikes afterwards against the opposition-controlled district of Sheikh Saeed.

Russia's defence spokesman Igor Konashenskov said earlier that six passages for civilians to leave rebel-held eastern Aleppo were still functioning and that 48 women and children left late Monday.

Moscow had on Monday ruled out early moves to renew its total ceasefire in Aleppo after the brief halt ended, admitting that few people had used humanitarian passages to leave the city and blaming failures by the US-led coalition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday urged the United Nations to do more to facilitate the evacuation of the injured from the battered city.

In a phone conversation with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Lavrov "stressed that representatives of the UN's humanitarian agencies should act in a more resolute manner to remove the obstacles" preventing aid from getting in to eastern Aleppo and those injured from getting out, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Syrian doctors have deplored the failure to evacuate the wounded and sick from rebel-held areas of Aleppo, also blaming the UN for failing to guarantee their security.

More than 250,000 people are still living in the besieged area.

For its part the UN on Monday criticised Syrian forces and rebel groups for failing to organise evacuations during the ceasefire window.

Russian and Syrian planes had stopped bombing from the air on Tuesday last week ahead of the ceasefire.

The West has accused Moscow of perpetrating potential war crimes in Aleppo through indiscriminate bombing in support of a regime offensive to retake total control over Syria's second city.

Nearly 500 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded since the Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower, launched an operation to recapture eastern Aleppo on September 22.

Russia is a key ally of Syria's government and began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad in September last year.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is set to hold talks with Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week said no UN aid convoy has entered Aleppo since July 7 and food rations will run out by the end of October.

Russian FM equates Mosul offensive to Moscow's Aleppo bombing
Moscow (AFP) Oct 25, 2016 - Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that US support of Iraqi efforts to recapture Mosul from jihadists was equivalent to Moscow's backing of a Syrian government offensive to seize rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

"They are preparing an operation to liberate Mosul from terrorists," Russian news agencies quoted Sergei Lavrov as saying.

"And in Aleppo, the city needs to be freed from terrorists. With the exact same plea as we made in Aleppo, the American coalition is appealing to residents in Mosul, calling on them to leave. Just like in Aleppo, humanitarian corridors have been set up."

Lavrov said that his American counterpart John Kerry had assured him that the situation in Mosul was "completely different" from that in Aleppo.

"In Mosul we planned in advance, while in Aleppo, you didn't plan and civilians are suffering," Kerry said, according to Lavrov.

The West has accused Moscow of perpetrating potential war crimes in Aleppo through indiscriminate bombing in support of a Syrian government offensive to retake total control over the city.

Nearly 500 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded since the Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower, launched an operation to recapture eastern Aleppo on September 22.

A ceasefire meant to allow civilians and armed combatants to leave rebel-held eastern Aleppo ended at the weekend, with Moscow on Monday ruling out an extension of the truce for the time being.

Russian officials have repeatedly criticised the US-led coalition's support of the Iraqi offensive on Mosul. On Tuesday, Iraqi forces were inching to within striking distance of the city's east.

Russia's defence ministry last week urged the coalition not to "drive terrorists" from Iraq to Syria during the offensive, warning it against the risk of "freely roaming" gangs of jihadists from the Islamic State group in the Middle East.

President Vladimir Putin earlier this month called on the US-led coalition to avoid civilian casualties in the Mosul offensive, as Moscow faced growing criticism over its bombing of Aleppo.