Bringing Syria's many armed groups into a unified command structure is a top priority for the new government.

Syria's new defense minister says it is wrong for U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country's northeast to retain their own group within the broader integrated Syrian armed forces.

Murhav Abu Kasra told Reuters in an interview in Damascus on Sunday that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been dragging their feet on dealing with the complex issue.

The SDF, which has established a semi-autonomous region after 14 years of war, has been negotiating with the new government in Damascus, led by the former rebels who ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, said one of their core demands is decentralization, he told Saudi Arabia's Al-Shaq news channel last week , the Self-Defense Forces are open to integration with the Ministry of Defense, but "as a military group" and will not be disbanded.

Abu Kasra rejected the offer on Sunday.

Abu Qasra, who was appointed defense minister on December 21, said: "We said they will go to the level of the Ministry of Defense and be distributed in a military way - we have no problem with that."

"But for them to still be a military group within the Department of Defense, it's not right for such a group within a large agency."

One of the minister's first tasks since taking office has been to integrate Syria's numerous anti-Assad factions into a unified command structure.

However, doing so with the SDF proved challenging. The United States considers the group an important ally in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), but neighboring Turkey considers the group a national security threat and is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Abu Kasra said he had met with SDF leaders but accused them of "delaying" integration talks and said it was "the right of the Syrian state" to include them in the defense ministry, like other former rebel factions.

He was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after his rebel group Tahrir al-Sham led the offensive to overthrow Assad.

The minister said he hoped to complete the integration process, including the appointment of some senior military officials, before the end of the transitional government on March 1.

Asked how he responded to criticism that the transitional council should not make such appointments or make such sweeping changes to military infrastructure, he said "security concerns" drove the new country to prioritize the matter.

"We are in a race against time and every day makes a difference," he said.

The new government has also been criticized for its decision to allow some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians, to serve in the new army.

Abu Kasra acknowledged that the decision had caused an uproar but said he was unaware of any requests to extradite foreign fighters.