Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, said that a plan discussed during an international conference on Syria in Geneva in June could be used as a blueprint to establish an interim government with "full executive powers" prior to holding elections.
But he also said that the Syrian government must be kept intact, a requirement that is unacceptable to many in the opposition who want guarantees that President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials will be barred from holding office.
"This transitional period should not be allowed to lead to the collapse of the state and its institutions," Brahimi said at a news conference in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Brahimi also noted the urgency of finding a resolution to the conflict, which has left millions of Syrians displaced and living in grim conditions.
"The situation is bad and is worsening," he said. "The Syrian people are suffering unbearably."
Brahimi is scheduled to travel to Moscow on Saturday for talks with Russian officials.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comments came the same day he met in Moscow with Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, in a possible sign that Russia, which has been one of Assad's closest allies, is attempting to pressure his government to negotiate.
Without a political solution, the country would descend into "bloody chaos," Lavrov told the Interfax news agency, according to Reuters.
Mekdad agreed that the crisis needs to be resolved peacefully but emphasized "the necessity that the solution be Syrian and led by Syria," according to a report by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The Russian government is also looking to the Geneva plan backed by Brahimi as the best option for such a solution.
"We continue to believe that there is no alternative to that document in trying to find a settlement in Syria," Alexander Lukashevic, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in Moscow, according to the Associated Press.
Two weeks ago, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, acknowledged that the Syrian opposition has been taking control of more and more territory and that a victory by opposition forces could not be ruled out, the first time a senior Russian official had indicated that Assad may not be able to hold onto power.
U.S. officials sought to play down reports that a deal on a transitional government could be within reach. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said only that the Obama administration was coordinating closely with Brahimi and the U.N. team.
"We are working with him to end the violence and pave the way for a political transition," Ventrell said. "The United States stands with the Syrian people in insisting that any transition process result in a peaceful, unified, democratic Syria, in which all citizens are protected. And a future of this kind cannot possibly include Assad."
Analysts also suggested that it is far from clear that the opposition forces would accept a U.N.-brokered peace plan, noting their recent military gains and growing arsenal.
"The rebels now have a self-sustaining capability," said Jeffrey White, a former military analyst for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, addressing a forum at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Government forces, meanwhile, are suffering heavy losses and "could collapse at any time," said White, who predicted that Assad's defeat could come "in weeks, or a few months, but not more than that."
A U.S. official privy to intelligence reports on the fighting agreed that Assad's grip on the country was steadily weakening, though the official declined to predict how quickly the end might come.
"Pressure on the regime is mounting, and Assad's forces are having difficulty beating back insurgent gains," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
Even as talk of a political solution seemed to be ramping up outside Syria on Thursday, the conflict continued unabated inside it, with opposition groups counting at least 156 dead in attacks across the country.
Rebel forces also said they had shot down a MiG jet near the town of Morek in western Syria. A video posted online shows a rebel fighter shooting a heavy machine gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck at an airplane. A bright flash can be see in the sky before the aircraft plunges to the ground in a large ball of black smoke.
Ahmed Ramadan in Beirut and Joby Warrick in Washington contributed to this report.
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