Backakra (Sweden): The UN Security Council is meeting in a secluded farmhouse on the southern tip of Sweden on Saturday in a bid to overcome deep divisions over how to end the war in Syria. In a first for the council, which normally holds its annual brainstorming session in upstate New York, the 15 ambassadors and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have this year been invited to hold its informal meeting in Backakra by Sweden, a non-permanent member of the body. The presence of the UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was not yet confirmed. The farmhouse is the summer residence of Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations' second secretary-general who died in a plane crash in Africa in 1961. Situated in the heart of a nature reserve, just a stone's throw from the Baltic Sea, the farmhouse consists of four buildings around a courtyard and has been completely renovated in recent years. The southern wing serves as the summer residence for the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel Literature Prize. With both New York and Damascus thousands of kilometres away, the council will explore "the means to strengthen and make more effective United Nations peacekeeping missions," the Swedish government said. Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, welcomed the decision to hold the meeting in Sweden, "where there is a long tradition of peaceful conflict prevention and resolution".