More than 270,000 displaced by southern Syria fighting

A regime offensive in southern Syria has forced more than 270,000 people from their homes, the United Nations said Monday.

"We were expecting the number of displaced in southern Syria to reach 200,000, but it has already exceeded 270,000 people in record time," said Mohammad Hawari, the spokesman for UN refugee agency UNHCR in Amman.

Nearly two weeks of ferocious air strikes and barrel bombing have seen regime forces retake swathes of rebel-held territory in the southern province of Daraa.

The United Nations had warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the southwest as a result of the Russian-backed regime offensive.

Jordan, which has taken in more than half a million displaced Syrians since the war began, and Israel have said they will not open their borders to refugees.

Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi said he will head to Moscow on Tuesday to hold talks with his Russian counterpart over the conflict in Syria.

Safadi said on Monday said that his meeting with Sergey Lavrov will produce more understandings and will "take us more steps forward to contain this crisis and prevent more destruction."

Safadi said Amman has open channels with Damascus and Moscow and the talks will focus on reaching a cease-fire and halting the displacement.

The Daraa region borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and is considered to be the cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad seven years ago that sparked a deadly civil war that left thousands dead.

The regime has chipped away at rebel-held territory in Daraa since ratcheting up the violence almost two weeks ago, with Russia stepping in to oversee a string of deals to retake towns from the embattled rebels.