UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday met here with British Prime Minister David Cameron on how to bring the warring Syrian parties to a proposed international conference on Syria with "a real willingness to make compromises."

During the meeting, "they exchanged views on the best means of getting the warring parties in Syria to come to the proposed international conference with serious delegations and a real willingness to make compromises, especially on the issue of a transition," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.

"Encouragement on both sides from many international players would be essential in this regard," he said. "They also underlined the importance of United Nations investigations on allegations of the use of chemical weapons."

Cameron visited the UN Headquarters in New York after his Monday meeting with U.S. President Barack Cameron in Washington.

The secretary-general left New York for Moscow on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to discuss with Russian leaders the Syrian crisis.

The United States and Russia have agreed to sponsor another conference in Geneva by the end of May -- bringing to the table representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition -- to make a fresh bid for peace in the Middle East country, which has been plagued by a political crisis since March 2011.

During their talks, Ban thanked Cameron "for his leadership and his support to the United Nations on several issues, including Somalia, Mali, Syrian refugees, the impressive level of UK (United Kingdom) development assistance, and the Global Fund," Nesirky said.

The UK is one of the five permanent countries of the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, the secretary-general also stressed the importance of using the coming period as an opportunity to make progress on the Cyprus issue, he added. Enditem