Syria’s government has given verbal assurances that aid convoys can go into three or four of the areas that its forces are besieging, UN humanitarian advisor Jan Egeland said on Wednesday.

The UN had received the green light for eight or nine of the 11 areas it had asked to deliver aid to, including three or four besieged areas, but not the towns of Daraya, where the World Food Programme has said some people have been reduced to eating grass, or Douma. Both are close to Damascus.

But in a reversal for humanitarian aid, he said a local agreement to end the siege of al Waer of Homs city had broken down, and the UN would need to mediate.