Similar amnesties have been issued on several occasions, most recently last year, since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.

According to the latest pardon, life terms will replace death sentences, and a 20-year sentence will replace life sentences.

Prisoners with incurable diseases including cancer will be freed, it said.

The decree stipulated a general amnesty for military deserters who turn themselves in within three months for those inside the country, and six months for those outside the country.

Assad also received Russia's special envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev and deputy foreign minister Sergey Vershinin a day before a trilateral summit in Turkey that will include the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran, in which Syria will be the main focus of talks.

Monday's summit in the Turkish capital of Ankara will discuss the situation in the northwestern province of Idlib which has been under attack by government forces since April 30.

A truce has been holding despite some violations since the end of August.

Russia and Iran are strong backers of Assad while Turkey supports the Syrian opposition.

Sana said Lavrentiev briefed Assad on the agenda of the summit.

Separately in northern Syria, a car bomb killed eight people and wounded seven others in a town held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, Syrian opposition activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa news agency, an activist collective, said the blast occurred on Sunday night in the town of Rai.

Australian Associated Press