REPORT:Syria sides fight for keeps as Geneva peace talks loom.

By Jim MuirBBC News, Beirut

As is normal when peace negotiations loom, the approach of the Geneva II conference scheduled for 22 January has witnessed something of an upsurge of violence in the struggle between regime and rebels in Syria.

But this is no normal conflict, and there is no guarantee at all that the conference - which diplomats insist is not an event, but the start of a process expected to last months - will produce an end to the carnage.

While it is highly unlikely that a whistle will blow and the guns will have to fall silent, the two sides are clearly trying to enhance their positions on the ground so that they can go into the talks - assuming they take place - looking as strong as possible.

At the moment, the regime side looks in slightly better shape than the rebels. But it is clearly not in a position to sweep the board and regain control of the country. The overall picture, despite daily upsets and advances here and there, remains one of stalemate.

As one analyst put it : "They look like two tired boxers slugging it out."

Battlefield 'deadlock'

The most important current focus is on the crucial highway linking Damascus with Homs and thence to the main northern cities and the Alawite heartland on the coast.

Syria and rebels have been fighting for control of the strategic region near the Lebanese border

The road has been cut by rebels for nearly three weeks, with government forces battling to regain control of a lifeline whose rupture has led to fuel shortages in the capital.

Control is vital for the regime in any eventuality, and all the more so should a future scenario involve the country's partition in any way, including a ceasefire in position which would leave the two sides at least provisionally in control of the territory they hold.

But so far it has been hard pushed to dislodge rebel fighters from towns like Nabak, halfway between Damascus and Homs, and clashes were taking place on the highway itself daily. Even if it does drive them out, it may find use of the road subject to disruption by guerrilla-type rebel attacks.

Government forces have made some limited progress around the southern edge of Aleppo in the north, and could use that as a springboard for further inroads into rebel-held terrain if they can marshal the resources.

But in other areas, they are making less than impressive headway.

Heavy fighting around Deraa in the south has made it hard for them to keep their supply lines open.

And despite months of battling and besieging - and even the chemical weapons assault on 21 August which was followed by a concerted ground offensive - regime troops have not been able to push the rebels out of a ring of suburbs around the capital, where they have been entrenched for well over a year.

Proxy forces

The government side is better able to conduct a centralised military strategy, and is better resourced. It has made devastating, if often inaccurate, use of its air power and even ground-to-ground missiles.

But it continues to face a manpower problem which has often seen its forces unable to garrison and hold positions they have regained.

Fighters from Hezbollah and purportedly Iran are helping the Syrian government

It has tried to mitigate the problem by developing a largely Alawite "National Defence" militia - with much Iranian help - to act as a kind of home guard or army auxiliary in many areas, largely subsuming the pro-government shabiha irregulars.

But it has been obliged to rely increasingly on Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and other Iranian-backed non-Syrian Shia militias (notably the Abul Fadl al-Abbas brigades, drawn from Iraq and elsewhere) in combat zones.

Given all that, it might seem fanciful for the regime to imagine that it can reconquer the whole country.

But given the disarray on the rebel side, it is not surprising that the government seems to believe it is on the road to victory and that time is on its side.

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