DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with peace envoy Kofi Annan, the state news agency SANA said on Tuesday, following a massacre which Syria's government blamed on militants, while the global body suggested government forces played a role. 

Annan is attempting to salvage a six-week-old peace plan that has UN and Arab League backing, but which has barely slowed the bloodshed in a 14-month-old uprising against Assad that began with mass protests and now has an armed insurgency.