Britain is to abandon its demand that the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must be removed from power to bring peace to the country.

David Cameron is expected to signal the major shift in policy on a trip to the United Nations in New York this week. It will form part of a plan to win

international support, including from Russia, to defeat the terrorist forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), which is now seen as a more urgent priority than regime change.