President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday vowed Turkey would not take even the “smallest step back” in an escalating stand-off with Damascus and Russia over the northern Syrian region of Idlib.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, could be in the pipeline, ahead of a possible summit including EU heavyweights Germany and France to find a political solution to the Idlib crisis, said Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“We will not take the smallest step back in Idlib,” Erdogan told his ruling party’s lawmakers in Parliament in Ankara.

“We will certainly push the regime outside the borders we designated and ensure the return of the people to their homes.”

The epicentre of the nearly nine-year-long conflict in Syria, Idlib has in recent weeks become the theatre of conflict between Turkey, which supports rebel groups in the area, and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is backed by Russia.

Ankara has confirmed as many as 17 Turkish security personnel have been killed this month alone.

Erdogan bluntly warned the Syrian regime to “stop its attacks as soon as possible” and to pull back by the end of this month.

As part of its deal with Russia, Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib but several have come under fire as Assad’s forces move to recapture the last big region beyond his control.

Erdogan said: “The time we have given to those who besieged our observation towers is running out.

“We are planning to save our observation posts from the besiegers one way or another by the end of this month,” he said.

Erdogan added that “the biggest problem we currently have is that we cannot use the air space” over Idlib which is controlled by Russia.

“God willing, we will find a solution soon.”

Shortly after he was speaking, Russian diplomats and military officials arrived in Ankara for talks with their Turkish counterparts. The talks were due to continue from 1100 GMT on Thursday, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Similar contacts this month in Ankara and in Moscow ended with no concrete results.

In recent weeks Damascus, backed by Russian airstrikes, has pressed a major offensive against the remaining territory held by jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels in Idlib.

In a statement read on public television, the Syrian army on Wednesday announced it had “regained control” of a dozen areas in recent days, including Kafranbel in the south of Idlib, a town known to have been among the first to rebel against Damascus.

The army vowed to “liberate the territories of the Syrian Arab Republic from terrorism and its supporters”.

The fighting in Idlib has forced nearly one million civilians to flee – the biggest wave of displacement of the nine-year conflict.

The UN has warned against an imminent “bloodbath” amid the continuing violence.