Syria's government has agreed that women and children trapped in the city of Homs can leave immediately under a deal that marked the first concrete sign of progress to relieve suffering on the ground on a second day of internationally backed peace talks in Geneva.  Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian mediator representing the UN and Arab League, acknowledged that the confidence-building agreement fell short of hopes to send a humanitarian aid convoy to a besieged rebel-held area of the war-scarred central Syrian city. But he warned that it would take time "to bring Syria out of the ditch in which it has fallen".  Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Miqdad, blamed rebel forces for preventing an evacuation. "If the armed terrorists allow women and children to leave the old city of Homs, we will allow them every access," he said.  Brahimi defended the pace of the talks, which have yet to tackle the central and highly sensitive issue of Bashar al-Assad's future – a taboo for the Syrian government. "I think being too slow is a better way than going too fast," he told reporters at UN headquarters in Geneva. "If you run, you may gain one hour and lose one week."  The envoy said on Saturday that the long-awaited negotiations between the government and the anti-Assad opposition had got off to a "good beginning", though the two sides were speaking only through him and not directly to each other. In Sunday's first session the format was the same. But in the afternoon the teams convened in separate rooms, with the UN diplomat shuttling between them.  Munzer Aqbiq, spokesman for the western-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition, accused the government of stalling on the Homs aid convoy. But Buthaina Shaaban, the president's media adviser, said the matter was being dealt with in Damascus. Western diplomats said the official Syrian delegation had denied knowing about the relief plan – which was drawn up with input from the US and Russia, as well as the UN and Red Cross – when it was raised.  Opposition representatives demanded the government release nearly 50,000 prisoners, including 2,500 women and children. Miqdad said many of those listed had never been held and denied "categorically" that any children were in detention. Last week three leading international war crimes prosecutors reported finding "compelling evidence" of the torture, starvation and death in custody of 11,000 prisoners in the Damascus area alone, and authenticated images of their bodies taken by an army photographer who later defected.  The war has claimed 130,000 lives and made 2m people refugees since anti-government protests erupted in March 2011.  The Geneva process, launched at a grand international conference in Montreux last week, has already settled into a set routine. Spokespeople from both sides emerge regularly from the Palais des Nations to give TV interviews in the beautifully tended gardens overlooking Lake Geneva and the snow-capped Alps. The aim is to get their messages across and to discredit each other.  Some of the sharpest exchanges have been between journalists working for government-approved media and opposition representatives. In the evenings, western officials and advisers working with the anti-Assad camp hold briefings in one of Geneva's most exclusive hotels.  Diplomats argue that it is vital to move quickly from discussing confidence-building steps to the Geneva I agreement of June 2012 – the creation of a transitional governing body. That is supposed to happen by mutual consent, even though it is clear that Assad's future is the main problem. Brahimi said this potentially explosive issue would not be tackled until Monday at the earliest.  The Syrian government is clear about its objections. "It is a big lie that this is about the president," Shaaban said. "Is this about the government or about the destruction of Syria? That's what they [the opposition] want. We are here in good faith. We want to stop this horrible inferno that is making our lives hell. We want the best for Syria.  "These people represent only themselves. They represent only a small fraction of the opposition who have not been living in Syria. I do not want to talk about transition while my people cannot have food and medicine and while children are being killed and kidnapped. What I want is to restore peace and security and then we will talk about a political process. Our priority is to stop terrorism."
UN mediator at Geneva II peace talks Lakhdar Brahimi says women and children will be allowed out of besieged city immediately