A UN proposal to end heavy fighting in the city of Aleppo has been rejected by the Syrian government, BBC News reports.

Under the plan, rebel-held eastern Aleppo would remain under opposition control if rebel fighters withdrew.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who met the UN envoy to Syria on Sunday, November 20 called the idea a violation of "national sovereignty".

Earlier, eight children died in government-held western Aleppo after rebels hit a school, state media say.

In a rebel-held area, a barrel bomb killed a family of six, activists say.

Local medics say the victims in the al-Sakhour district suffocated to death because the bomb was laced with chlorine gas.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which monitors all the latest developments in Syria, reported the bombing but could not confirm the gas was used.

In Sunday's rebel shelling of the school in the government-controlled Furqan area, a teacher was also killed and at least 32 people were injured, Syria's state-run Sana news agency reports.