Syria resolution:

Russia prepared to veto

Russia will use its veto to block any UN Security Council resolution on Syria that it deems to be unacceptable, Moscow's envoy to the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"If the text is unacceptable then we will vote against," Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

"We will not allow a text to be adopted that we consider to be incorrect and will lead to a deepening of the conflict. We are openly telling our partners this."

Russia has exasperated the West by refusing to back a resolution proposed by Morocco and backed by Western powers seeking an end to the bloodshed in Syria and calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Churkin said that Russia was pushing for a text "in which it would be clear that no foreign military intervention will be used in the context of the Syria crisis."

Russia, the main foreign weapons supplier to Syria, was also strongly against the inclusion of even the "hint of a (weapons) embargo" against Damascus in the UN resolution. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said earlier Wednesday that Russia was showing a "less negative" attitude towards the UN Security Council resolution. Churkin said he was encouraged that the West was now at least listening to its position.

"It encourages me when our partners know about our red lines and say that we will reach a consensus. I think that they are ready to take account of our red lines," said Churkin. But Churkin also complained that there was an "unpleasant, ethically ugly, unprofessional game" surrounding the debates at the UN Security Council.