Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem arrived in Tehran on Sunday for unscheduled talks with Iranian officials, state media reported.

The trip, confirmed by Iran's foreign ministry, came as Syrian troops battle rebels in Syria's second city of Aleppo in an offensive that world powers fear could result in heavy civilian casualties and spark a humanitarian disaster.

The foreign ministry said Muallem was greeted by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and that the two would give a joint news conference later on Sunday.

"The Syrian foreign minister in his trip to Tehran will discuss bilateral relations, developments in Syria, and other regional and international issues," Iran's deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

He said that, as well as Salehi, Muallem would see the head of Iran's supreme national security council, Saeed Jalili, who is close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.

- Agence France Presse