Syria opposition seeks military support at Rome meeting

AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition will demand "qualitative military support" at an international conference in Rome to help in its struggle to oust President Bashar al-Assad, a leading Assad opponent said on Wednesday.

"We ask our friends to give us every backing to achieve gains on the ground and help reach a political solution from a position of strength, not weakness," Riad Seif of the Syrian National Coalition umbrella group told Reuters a day before a Friends of Syria conference in the Italian capital.

"We expect to receive political, humanitarian and qualitative military support," he said.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Michael Roddy)