Syrian government troops are advancing on "nearly every front" thanks to Russian air strikes that began in September, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview released Sunday.

The embattled president also said he favoured new peace talks to be hosted in Moscow, but stressed that the Syrian conflict could not be resolved without "defeating terrorism".

In the interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix television, Assad said the situation in Syria had "improved in a very good way" since Russia began air strikes on September 30.

"Now I can say that the army is making advancement in nearly every front... in many different directions and areas on the Syrian ground," he said, speaking in English.

Russia is coordinating its air strikes with Damascus, unlike the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, which Assad and his government criticise as ineffectual.

The army has made minimal progress on the ground, according to groups monitoring the war, though the Russian strikes have reportedly boosted morale among government troops and supporters.

Moscow has also sought a leading role in a political resolution to the conflict, participating recently in high-level talks in Vienna with other world powers in a bid to create a framework for peace.

Talks there earlier this month produced a framework for the creation of a transitional government, a new constitution and elections within 18 months.

But there was no agreement on the fate of Assad, whom the opposition and their backers want gone, but allies such as Iran and Russia say should be allowed to run in new elections if he wants.

- 'Defeating terrorism' -

Assad said it was "my right" to run in new elections but it was "too early" to say if he intended to.

"(It) depends on how my feeling is regarding the Syrian people. I mean, do they want me or not?"

"You cannot talk about something that's going to happen maybe in the next few years," he said.

Assad said he backed Moscow's efforts to organise new dialogue between the regime and opposition in a "Moscow 3" conference, but insisted a political solution could only be achieved with the defeat of "terrorism".

"We need to make the dialogue, but the concrete steps should follow at least a major defeat of the terrorists and the government takes control of a major area that has been captured by the terrorists," he said.

The Syrian leader said it would take "maximum of two years" to produce a new constitution and hold a referendum on it.

Assad's government considers all those who oppose his regime "terrorists," and has framed the conflict that began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011 as a "war on terror".

He accuses the West and other backers of the opposition of sponsoring extremism, and said the West had exploited a photograph of a young Syrian refugee child, Aylan Kurdi, found dead on a Turkish beach.

"That photo was used as propaganda by the West," he said, accusing opposition backers of driving Syrians abroad by sponsoring "terrorism" and levying sanctions on Syria.

"This boy and... other children suffered and died and are being killed because of the Western policies in this world, in this region," he said.

Syria/Iraq: Who is fighting the Islamic State ?
Beirut (AFP) Nov 23, 2015 - A breakdown of the main forces fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, after operations by warplanes from France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier were launched on Monday:

- Syrian and Iraqi armies -

- SYRIA: The Syrian army numbered 178,000 troops in 2015, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Syria's army has been roughly halved from its pre-war strength by deaths, defections and increased draft dodging. In its fight against rebels and jihadists, it relies on militias, which boast 150,000 to 200,000 members.

- IRAQ: The army counts 177,600 men, according to the IISS. After the US invasion in 2003, the Americans dissolved the army, which was then 450,000 strong, and rebuilt a new force which collapsed in June 2014 faced with the IS.

Washington and its allies then sought to train the Iraqi army and the government to restructure it. Since September. it has had at its disposal American F-16 fighter jets. It depends on Shiite militias, notably the Popular Mobilisation units (Hashed al-Shaabi) and Sunni tribes.

- Kurdish forces and rebel militias -

- Kurds have defended their own territory from the IS, backed by raids by the US-led coalition with Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the north and northeastern Syria, and peshmerga in northern Iraq.

- In Syria, after the failure of a plan to train rebels, Washington has offered support since October 12 to a coalition of Kurdish militia and rebel groups: the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance between the powerful YPG and other Syrian rebel groups.

- Elsewhere in Syria, the armed opposition is fractured between a variety of moderate and Islamist rebel groups, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction in north and northwestern Syria, the Army of Islam near Damascus, and the Southern Front in Daraa province.

Some of those forces have at times allied with Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, which is in turn a rival of IS.

- Foreign forces -

- A US-led international coalition has been conducting air strikes in Iraq since September 2014 at Baghdad's request, and in Syria, where it has so far refused to collaborate with the Damascus authorities.

The coalition comprises around 60 countries, including Britain, France, Syria's Arab neighbours and Turkey, as well as since late September Tunisia, Malaysia and Nigeria.

It has ruled out any boots on the ground but has sent in soldiers to train Iraqi troops.

Less than a dozen of the countries actually carry out air strikes, which have totalled 8,200 over the past year, and of which the US has carried out four fifths.

Five countries -- the US, France, Canada, Australia and Jordan -- are taking part in air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

Others are taking part in strikes in Syria but not Iraq: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Turkey, or in Iraq but not Syria: Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain.

Washington, whose aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is expected in the Mediterranean, has sent 3,500 soldiers to Iraq and will deploy in Syria some 50 soldiers from its special forces.

They do not take part in ground combat, except for one-off operations.

FRANCE: is stepping up its air strikes in Syria after the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris claimed by the IS. It has mobilised 3,500 soldiers, and deployed in the eastern Mediterranean its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, more than doubling its strike capacity.

TURKEY: launched its first air strikes with the coalition on August 28, and authorised the US to use its strategic base at Incirlik.

RUSSIA: An ally of the Damascus regime, Moscow launched air strikes on September 30 in Syria, after boosting its military presence over the summer and is building an air base near the northwestern coastal town of Latakia.

Its fleet in the Caspian Sea is also firing cruise missiles. Moscow, which is calling for a "large anti-terrorist coalition" has according to the Russian press sent up to 2,000 soldiers.

Accused by the Americans and their allies of targeting the opposition to Damascus rather than the IS, Moscow has stepped up attacks on the jihadists since the Paris attacks and the downing of a Russian plane over Egypt's Sinai, though it continues to strike other groups too. Russia, Iran, Syria and Iraq have been coordinating intelligence since September.

IRAN: The Shiite power backs the regimes of Damascus and Baghdad and has committed its elite troops, the Revolutionary Guards, in Syria with some 7,000 soldiers, and also in Iraq.

LEBANON: The powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah has committed between 5,000 and 8,000 fighters to Syria where it is fighting alongside the army.