To add details

By Mona Alaa El-Din and Ahmed Talaba

August 9 (Reuters) - The Syrian government will not participate in planned meetings with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, the state news agency SANA reported on Saturday , casting doubt on a merger agreement the two sides signed in March.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were the main US-allied force in Syria during the fight to defeat ISIS in 2019 after the group had declared control over large swaths of Syria and Iraq.

Last March, the Syrian Democratic Forces signed an agreement with the new Islamist-led government in Damascus to integrate into Syrian state institutions.

The agreement aims to reunite a country torn apart by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces controlling part of Syria to integrate with Damascus, along with regional Kurdish governing bodies.

However, the agreement did not specify how the SDF would integrate with the Syrian armed forces. The SDF previously said its members should join as a single bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.

SANA quoted the source as saying that Damascus "will not sit at the negotiating table with any party seeking to revive the era of the former regime."

The source was speaking about a conference hosted by the Kurdish-led group that governs northeastern Syria on Friday, in which it called for a review of the constitutional declaration issued by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa earlier this year.

Participants criticized the government for sectarian clashes in the southern province of Sweida and the Syrian coastal region.

The final statement issued by the conference on "Unity of Position of the Components of North and East Syria" in the city of Hasakah stated, "The participants believed that the current constitutional declaration does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and human dignity, which calls for reconsideration of it to ensure broader participation and fair representation in the transitional phase."

A government source told SANA, "The conference dealt a blow to ongoing negotiation efforts, and the government will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris."

The agency's report did not provide any additional details about the meetings, which were not previously announced.

The agency quoted the source as saying, "The Syrian government strongly condemns hosting separatist figures involved in hostile acts."

The source added that the government "holds the SDF and its leadership fully responsible for the repercussions of this, and considers this conference an attempt to internationalize Syrian affairs, invite foreign intervention, and reimpose sanctions, for which the SDF bears the legal, political, and historical consequences."

This dispute occurred following clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and government forces earlier this month.

(Prepared by Marwa Salam and Sherine Abdel Aziz for the Arabic edition - Edited by Rehab Alaa)