MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi have expressed “deep frustration” over the ongoing conflict in Syria and urged the international community to step up collective effort to end the crisis.

“The international community must act with unity to achieve a political solution and end the suffering in Syria,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said at a meeting in Mt. Pelerin, Switzerland on Saturday.

Both “expressed deep frustration at the failure of the international community to act with unity to end to the conflict, and regretted that the Government and the armed opposition forces have become “increasingly reckless with human life,” Mr. Ban's spokesperson said.

The UN chief warned on Friday that Syria is heading towards “dissolution.” “What atrocity must occur to finally stir the world to act?”

The latest statement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama tasked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry with working out new initiatives to resolve the ongoing conflict in Syria, the Kremlin said.

“In the context of the Syrian conflict, Putin stressed the need to put an end to military activity as soon as possible,” the statement said.

About 70,000 people have died in Syria since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, according to UN figures.