Ten children were among the dead in Aleppo this weekend, as more than 30 civilians were killed during strikes on the Syrian city.

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a briefing in Geneva today that "All parties in Aleppo are conducting hostilities that are resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties and creating an atmosphere of terror for those who continue to live in the city."

Improvised explosive devices, mortars and rockets also injured dozens of people in western Aleppo, Shamdasani said, as up to 275,000 people remain trapped in the eastern part of the city while the battle between rebels and the Syrian army continues.

Shamdasani added that atrocities committed in the city could constitute war crimes.

"The reported use of ground based missiles, along with the use of armed vehicles loaded with explosives, used in an area containing more than one million civilian inhabitants, is completely unacceptable and may constitute a war crime," she said.

"Strikes against hospitals, schools, market places, water facilities and bakeries are now commonplace and if proven to be intentional may amount to war crimes."

Aleppo has been under brutal siege for weeks, intensified by Russian and Syrian bombing of rebel-held areas that began in September.

The Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said today that the resumption of peace talks in Syria had been delayed indefinitely.

Russia is allied with Syria and backs President Bashar al-Assad, while the US and its allies want Assad to step down.