Russia on Monday blocked a proposed U.N. Security Council statement on mass killings in the Syrian village of Treimsa, diplomats said amid worsening deadlock over international action on the conflict.

Russian envoys opposed the statement saying it was not clear what had happened, council diplomats told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Russia could pass a law labeling media that gets funding from abroad as "foreign agents", a report said Monday, after the parliament approved a similar bill on NGOs.

The lower house, now on summer break, will begin its autumn session by discussing how to adapt the law on non-governmental organizations that it passed last week to fit media, lawmaker Ilya Kostunov of the United Russia party told Izvestia daily.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat slammed on Monday the Syrian regime’s “latest massacre” in the town of Treimsa, accusing it of seeking to “systematically destroy the country and lead it to fragmentation.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The Syrian people will be victorious in their revolt despite the international and Arab silence over their plight.”

Dialogue is no longer a solution to ending the slaughter in Syria and the United Nations' Security Council must step in, Jordan's Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh said in the Czech capital Prague Monday.

"It's impossible to resolve the situation in Syria through a dialogue today," Tarawneh said following talks with Czech counterpart Petr Necas.

A Soyuz rocket blasted off with an international crew of three toward the International Space Station on Sunday in a mission testing the reliability of Russia's crisis-prone space program.

NASA's Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia started their journey on top of the Soyuz-FG under the open skies of the Kazakh steppe on schedule and without a hitch.

Russia on Monday accused Western powers of using "blackmail" to get its backing for possible U.N. Security Council sanctions against Syria over the regime's crackdown on an armed opposition.

"To our great regret, we are witnessing elements of blackmail," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference over moves to end 16 months of violence that the opposition says has claimed more than 17,000 lives.

A Russian ship that tried to supply attack helicopters to Syria last month before being forced back was Sunday sighted sailing back home after unexpectedly starting a new voyage.

The privately-chartered Alaed had to return to Russia after its initial attempt to deliver the controversial cargo to President Bashar Assad's regime in June was exposed by the U.S. State Department.

Syrian peace mediator Kofi Annan was due in Moscow on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that come amid growing pressure on Russia to finally back the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The Kremlin said Sunday the U.N.-Arab League envoy would arrive in Moscow on Monday and meet Putin the following day for talks in which "Russia will underscore its support the peace plan of Kofi Annan."

Saudi Arabia has hit out at a Russian official for his remarks on unrest in the kingdom's east, saying his comments were a "blatant interference" in its internal affairs, a report said.

It accused Konstantin Dolgov, Russian Foreign Ministry's commissioner for human rights, of diverting attention from the "massacres" that were being committed by Moscow's ally, Damascus, in Syria.

Russian forces have killed six militants in a clash in the troubled Caucasus region of Dagestan that also claimed the life of a member of the security forces, a report said Saturday.

The clashes overnight started on a main road south of Dagestan's main city of Makhachkala and then continued in the surrounding forests and vineyards as the security forces gave chase to the militants.