Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks by telephone on Saturday with the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on the Syrian question, according to a statement released by the premiership. Erdogan asked Annan to try exert pressure on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to implement his plan for settling the crisis. Annan told the prime minister that he would dispatch a delegation to Istanbul to take part in the scheduled meeting of Syria's friends, due on Sunday. Leaders and officials of 74 states are due to take part in the meeting -- including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.