French President Francois Hollande (L) welcomes US Secretary of State John Kerry prior to a meeting at the Elysee presidential Palace, on Feb. 27, 2013, in Paris. (AFP)

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that he believed it would be possible to come to a political decision on the Syrian conflict in the coming weeks.

He made the statement on a visit to Moscow.

“I think that in the next few weeks we will manage to find a political solution that will stop the conflict escalating,” Hollande told a Moscow radio station.

The escalating situation in Syria and plans for the future will top the agenda at talks between the U.S. and France in Rome on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said both countries are examining how they can push for a political transition in war-torn Syria.

Kerry signaled on Wednesday that Washington may boost aid to the Syrian opposition, which he said “needs more help” as it battles to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power to end a brutal conflict that has killed around 70,000 people.

“We are examining ways to accelerate the political transition,” Kerry told a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday, before flying to Rome for a “Friends of Syria” meeting.

“We think it’s very important that more of our assistance gets to areas that have been liberated from the regime,” he said.

A State Department official however refused to confirm the report, which would mark a new step in the non-lethal aid, such as communications equipment, which the U.S. administration has so far supplied to the Syrian opposition.

“We’ve really got to give the diplomacy a little bit of breathing room here as the talks play out in Rome,” State Department deputy acting spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

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