LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will use its role as host of a summit of the G8 group of nations next week to try to get both sides in the Syrian conflict to attend a peace conference, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday. "We should use the G8 to try and bring pressure on all sides to bring about ... a peace conference, a peace process, and a move towards a transitional government in Syria," Cameron told parliament.

The Syrian conflict is at a "turning point" with regime forces gaining ground, the French foreign ministry said Tuesday, adding that it was time to review whether to arm the opposition. President Bashar al-Assad's regime has pledged to focus its attention on the northern city of Aleppo after winning a strategic victory by retaking Qusayr, a strategically important town on the border with Lebanon. "There are lessons to be drawn from what happened in Qusayr and what is happening in Aleppo," said ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot.

Syria's main opposition group spoke out on Monday against the execution of a 14-year-old boy by jihadist rebels who accused him of blasphemy. "The National Coalition condemns every act that violates the Syrian people's values and the principles of the (mainstream rebel) Free Syrian Army," the group said in a statement. "Anyone who breaches treaties and international conventions, and commits any war crimes will stand trial, regardless of who they are."

Islamist rebels fighting the Syrian regime shot dead a 15-year-old child in front of his parents and siblings Sunday after accusing him of blasphemy, a monitoring group said. "An unidentified Islamist rebel group shot dead a 15-year-old child who worked as a coffee seller in (the northern city of Aleppo), after they accused him of blasphemy," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman. Abdel Rahman said the rebel group likely comprised foreign jihadists. "They spoke classical Arabic, not Syrian dialect," he told AFP.