(Sky News)- Syria's Bashar al Assad has rejected pleas from rebel fighters in Aleppo for a truce.
The president said victory in the battle-ravaged city would be a "huge step" towards ending the country's five-year civil war.
He was speaking after a fierce three-week offensive in which government forces seized about 80% of east Aleppo, a stronghold for rebel groups since 2012.
In an interview with Syrian daily Al-Watan, Mr Assad said defeating the rebels in Aleppo "will be a win for us, but let's be realistic - it won't mean the end of the war in Syria.
"But it will be a huge step towards this end."
When asked about the possibility of a truce in Aleppo, he answered: "It's practically non-existent, of course."
The increasingly cornered opposition factions have called for an "immediate five-day humanitarian ceasefire".
The US, Britain and France have also called for a truce, warning of a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Overnight, more than 100 people who had been trapped amid heavy clashes in the city were taken to hospitals or shelters after being evacuated by Red Cross and Red Crescent aid workers.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, are meeting in the German city of Hamburg following Wednesday's failure in talks to find a way to halt the fighting in Aleppo.
Tens of thousands of children in Aleppo are "sitting targets" in the ongoing fighting, according to Save the Children Syria director Sonia Khush.
She said: "It defies belief that after nearly six years of suffering through this war, the international community is still willing to stand by as civilians are bombed with seeming impunity."
According to UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 19 civilians were killed on Wednesday during the bombardment of east Aleppo.
Aleppo was once known as the beating heart of culture and commerce in Syria, but the outbreak of fighting there four years ago has left it divided between rebels in the east and government forces in the west.
Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with widespread demonstrations and turned into a brutal multi-front war, drawing in world powers.
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