Syria's leading opposition coalition is to decide Tuesday whether to attend peace talks in Geneva, following a tense meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, a member told AFP on Monday.

The member of the so-called High Negotiations Committee said Kerry applied "pressure" during a weekend meeting in Saudi Arabia, warning the opposition risked "losing friends" if they failed to attend the talks.

Fuad Aliko said the Committee would meet Tuesday to make a final decision on whether to attend the Geneva talks.

The Saturday meeting with Kerry was "neither comfortable, nor positive", said Aliko, a member of the Committee's designated delegation for the talks.

Kerry told the Committee's chief Riad Hijab that they risked "losing friends", Aliko said.

"This talk means a halt to political and military support to the opposition," he added.

Syria's warring parties were scheduled to begin the latest round of talks aimed at ending the country's conflict on Monday in Geneva.

But they have been delayed at least in part by a dispute over who will represent the opposition.

The High Negotiations Committee, a coalition of opposition bodies formed last year in Riyadh, insists it should send a sole opposition delegation to the talks.

But the Committee excludes Syria's main Kurdish force and other opposition figures, and Russia has branded some of its components as "terrorist" organisations.

Moscow reportedly wants to see excluded members allowed to participate in the talks either as part of the Committee's delegation or in a second opposition delegation.

But the Committee has roundly rejected either option and threatened to boycott the talks altogether if other opposition figures are included.

Aliko said Kerry applied "pressure" during the Saturday talks, though he stopped short of saying the US diplomat had used threats.

"He tried with all his efforts to insist on the necessity of us attending, saying we'd be able to do whatever we want there, but he was not able to reassure us that we are going into negotiations, rather than nothing more than a dialogue," he said.

"We want negotiations that revolve around a political transition," Aliko said.

The Geneva talks have also been held up by a dispute about some of the members of the negotiating team chosen by the Committee.

The Committee has selected Mohammed Alloush of the Islamist rebel group Army of Islam as its chief negotiator, drawing the ire of some of its other members.

Russia said last week it continues to consider the Army of Islam a "terrorist" organisation.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is expected to hold a press conference in Geneva later on Monday to discuss preparations for the talks.

IS planning for 'large-scale' attacks on Europe: Europol
Amsterdam (AFP) Jan 25, 2016 - The Islamic State group has honed the ability to launch global attacks and is set to focus more on Europe following the Paris massacre, the chief of the EU police agency Europol said Monday.

Rob Wainwright told a news conference that "the so-called Islamic State had developed a new combat style capability to carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage -- with a particular focus in Europe."

"So-called Islamic State has a willingness and a capability to carry out further attacks in Europe, and of course all national authorities are working to prevent that from happening," he added.

Wainwright was unveiling the findings of a new Europol report on changes in how the jihadist group operates, coinciding with the launch of the agency's new counterterrorism centre in The Hague.

IS claimed responsibility for the November 13 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed, releasing a video on Sunday purporting to show nine of the jihadists in which they threaten "coalition countries" including Britain.

A US-led coalition has been fighting IS in Iraq since August 2014, and in Syria since September that year.

"IS is preparing more terrorist attacks, including more 'Mumbai-style' attacks, to be executed in member states of the EU, and in France in particular," the Europol report said.

"The attacks will be primarily directed at soft targets, because of the impact it generates. Both the November Paris attacks and the October 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner suggest a shift in IS strategy towards going global."

IS had developed an "external action command" which was trained for "special forces-style attacks" internationally, the report said.

But the report played down fears that jihadists were smuggling themselves into Europe as part of the huge wave of refugees and migrants that the continent is dealing with, many of whom are fleeing the war in Syria.

"There is no concrete evidence that terrorist travellers systematically use the flow of refugees to enter Europe unnoticed," it said.

It warned however that many new arrivals were vulnerable to radicalisation or recruitment, with evidence that extremist recruiters were specifically targeting refugee centres.

One of the main tasks of the new Europol counter-terrorism centre was to collect details on the estimated 5,000 Europeans who have gone to fight with IS in Syria and Iraq, Wainwright said.

"We already have details on 3,700 fighters actively engaged in the conflict zone but that's not the full picture and it's something we will be addressing through priority work of the new centre," it said.