DAMASCUS, Sept 15: International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned after meeting President Bashar Al Assad on Saturday that the worsening conflict in Syria threatened both the region and the world at large.

Russia, a strong ally of Syria, insisted it was not `clinging’ to any particular leader in Syria, but warned it would block any new UN Security Council resolution aimed at pressuring Mr Assad.

“The crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world,” said the newly appointed Brahimi, who took over as envoy earlier this month from former UN chief Kofi Annan.

Mr Assad, quoted by state television, said dialogue between Syrians held the key to a solution and called on foreign countries to stop supplying arms to his foes.

“The real problem in Syria is that of combining politics with the work being done on the ground,” he said. “The political work continues, in particular by calling for dialogue between Syrians based on the aspirations of all Syrians.

“The success of political action is dependent on putting pressure on the countries that finance and train the terrorists, and which bring weapons into Syria, until they stop doing so,” Mr Assad said.

Eighteen months into Syria’s deadly conflict and without an end in sight, President Assad said his government would “cooperate with all sincere efforts to solve the crisis, so long as the efforts are neutral and independent”. Mr Brahimi, a 78-year-old veteran Algerian troubleshooter, has also met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and members of the officially tolerated opposition since arriving in Damascus on Thursday.

“There is need for all parties to unite their efforts to find a solution for the crisis, given Syria’s strategic importance... and the crisis’s influence over the whole region,” Mr Brahimi said. “The solution can only come from the Syrian people.”

He said he currently had `no plan’ to tackle the crisis, but a strategy would be “set... after listening to all internal, regional and international parties”. Mr Brahimi warned on arrival that the conflict is `getting worse’.

He is on his first Damascus visit since replacing Mr Annan who quit after a hard-sought peace deal he brokered became a dead letter.

Mr Brahimi on Friday met Syrian opposition figures who said he was bringing `new ideas’ to the peace effort.

He met opposition groups tolerated by Mr Assad’s regime such as the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, which groups Arab nationalists, Kurds and socialists.

The group said it was sending a delegation to China, a key Damascus ally, to urge Beijing to “put pressure on the regime to stop the violence, free detainees and allow peaceful protests.”

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov insisted on Saturday Moscow was not `clinging’ to any individual leader in Syria.

Yet he signalled that Russia would block any new UN Security Council efforts to put pressure on Mr Assad after 18 months of violence that activists say has claimed more than 27,000 lives. The United Nations puts the toll at 20,000.—AFP