ANKARA: Turkey backs the ceasefire plan for Syria's 19-month conflict proposed by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday.

“In principle, we consider a ceasefire... to be declared during the Eid al-Adha as useful,” Davutoglu told television station A Haber.

Brahimi, joint envoy of the Arab League and the United Nations, has proposed a truce for the four-day Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday at the end of the month to pave the way for a political process.

Davutoglu said the plan was also backed by Iran, adding that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had discussed it during a bilateral meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of a regional summit in Azerbaijan.

“Iran has declared support (for the ceasefire proposal),” said Davutoglu.

The Turkish foreign minister said he had also held talks with Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Arabi, “who also backs the idea.”

Turkey, Iran, Egypt and the Arab League are due to issue an appeal for a truce to the warring parties on Friday, Davutoglu said.

“Let's hope that the sides respect the truce and blood stops flowing in Syria, for a time at least,” he said.

Brahimi's proposed truce between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the rebels fighting to overthrow the regime would cover one of the holiest periods in the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Adha, celebrated this year between October 26 and 28.

“If the Syrian government accepts, and I understand there is hope, and if the opposition accepts,” a truce would be a step “towards a more global ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy artillery, a stop to the flow of foreign weapons, and then towards a political solution in Syria,” Brahimi told reporters in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Syria said Tuesday it was ready to study the idea put forward by Brahimi, who is due to visit Syria soon.

Ankara has taken an increasingly strident line towards its southern neighbour, and Shiite-led Iran is Syria's closest regional ally , and is accused by several Western and Sunni-led Arab nations of providing military aid to the regime.

Turkey backs the Syrian rebels and is currently sheltering more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in several camps along the border.