WASHINGTON, Nov 14: President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he is encouraged that the Syrian opposition has formed a new, more representative leadership council, but the U.S., unlike some other countries, is not ready to recognise the group as a “government in exile” or to arm it. Obama told a White House news conference that his administration had been consulting intensively with foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad to broaden their base, a step they took over the weekend at a conference in Qatar.    ''I am encouraged to see that the Syrian opposition created an umbrella group that may have more cohesion than they have had in the past,” Obama told reporters.

“'We consider them a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people,” Obama said. “We're not yet prepared to recognise them as some sort of government in exile. But we do think that it is a broad-based representative group.''

France on Tuesday became the first western nation to recognise the new opposition group as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people.    Obama said the US needed more time and wanted to make sure that the group “is committed to a democratic Syria, an inclusive Syria, a moderate Syria.”—AP