The Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, signed a deal with the Damascus government to join Syria's new state institutions.

The militia alliance that controls much of north-eastern Syria will merge with new state institutions, the presidency says.

Syria’s interim government says it has reached a landmark agreement with Kurdish-led forces to integrate them into state institutions as it tries to unify the country’s diverse communities after a decade of civil war.