British Foreign Secretary William Hague, right, greets US Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of a meeting in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in central London, Wednesday April 10, 2013. Kerry is meeting in London with Syrian opposition leaders and Russia's top diplomat, a day after saying the U.S. could soon step up aid to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Kerry is in London for a G8 foreign ministers' meeting today and Thursday. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, pool)
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, right, greets US Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of a meeting in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in central London, Wednesday April 10, 2013. Kerry is meeting in London with Syrian opposition leaders and Russia's top diplomat, a day after saying the U.S. could soon step up aid to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Kerry is in London for a G8 foreign ministers' meeting today and Thursday. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, pool)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration's next step in aid to Syrian rebels is expected to be a broader package of nonlethal assistance, including body armor and night-vision goggles, as the U.S. grapples for ways to stem the bloodshed from Syria's civil war.
Administration officials say an announcement of the new aid is not imminent. But Secretary of State John Kerry says the administration had been holding intense talks on how to boost assistance to the rebels fighting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Those efforts have been very much front and center in our discussions in the last week in Washington," Kerry said Tuesday, a day before meeting with Syrian opposition leaders in London. "I'm not sure what the schedule is, but I do believe that it's important for us to try to continue to put the pressure on President Assad and to try to change his calculation."
The United Nations estimates more than 70,000 people have been killed during more than two years of fighting between rebels and government forces.
Britain and France have already been shipping armor, night-vision goggles and other military-style equipment to the rebels.
Earlier this year, the U.S. announced a $60 million nonlethal assistance package for Syria that includes meals and medical supplies for the armed opposition. The aid package marked the first direct American assistance to the opposition forces trying to overthrow Assad.
But thus far, the U.S. has resisted providing lethal weapons to the rebels, in part out of fear that the arms could fall into the hands of jihadi groups that are designated as terrorist fronts linked to al-Qaida. However, the U.S. has said it would not stand in the way of other nations that decide to arm the rebels.
Senior officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon held a high-level meeting Friday that focused on Syria.
In London, Kerry attended a British-hosted lunch alongside several leading members of the Syrian opposition. They included the interim prime minister, Hassan Hitto; Vice Presidents Suheir Atassi and George Sabra; Secretary-General Najib Ghadbian and the opposition's envoys to the United States and Britain.
Kerry then was to meet one-on-one with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks on the Syrian civil war and several U.S.-Russian disputes that have strained the relationship. Discussions on Syria are expected to continue into Wednesday night when the top diplomats from all the Group of Eight industrialized nations get together.
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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in London contributed to this report.
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