Paris: President Donald Trump said the US is working to expand a regional ceasefire in the Syrian civil war to a second zone, saying it may prove to be the first step toward ending a civil war that has killed more than 400,000 people and sent millions more fleeing.

Trump said on Thursday in Paris that the ceasefire in southwest Syria that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to impose after their July 7 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, has saved “a lot of lives.”

“We’re working on a second ceasefire in a very rough part of Syria,” Trump said during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. “And if we get that, and a few more, all of a sudden you’re going to have no bullets being fired in Syria. And that would be a wonderful thing.”

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this week in Istanbul that the US and Turkey were beginning to rebuild trust and could come to an agreement about northern Syria, where the US backs a Kurdish militia that Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.

During his first visit to Paris as president, Trump focused on the civil war in Syria and the broader coalition fight against Daesh in meetings with Macron and US military officials.

After Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Mosul from Daesh terrorists, the US and allies are considering the best options for maintaining peace in the region.

Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the fight against the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria was “almost complete.”

France was the first European country to join US air attacks on Daesh in Iraq and then Syria, and French special forces and an artillery unit supported Iraqi troops in their battle for Mosul. Trump and Macron spoke by phone last month and agreed to carry out joint air strikes should the Syrian regime use chemical weapons again.

While the US State Department has continued to say that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad won’t be part of Syria’s long-term future, Macron said on Thursday that representatives of Al Assad’s regime and the opposition should both be involved in drawing up a road map for postwar Syria.

Saying that “France’s priority in Syria is eradicating terrorist groups,” Macron said, “I do not require Al Assad’s departure. This is not a prerequisite.”