Russia and China strongly oppose foreign military intervention in Syria or Iran, said a joint statement released on Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leaders.

"Russia and China are decisively against attempts to regulate the Syrian crisis with outside military intervention, as well as imposing a policy of regime change, including within the Security Council," the statement said.

Further sanctions on Iran would be "counterproductive", Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during an official visit to China on Wednesday.

"Additional sanctions are completely counterproductive, they are already adopted not only by the Security Council, but by some states, which we think undermines our collective actions," Lavrov told reporters.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said Tuesday that it is time for Russia to change its stance on Syria and work to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

"The time has come for Russia to change its stance from supporting the Syrian regime to working to stop the killing and (supporting) a peaceful transition of power," Prince Saud told reporters after a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Jeddah.

Russia said on Tuesday it was prepared to see Syrian President Bashar Assad leave power in a negotiated solution to 15 months of bloodshed that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said a day after meeting mediator Kofi Annan in Geneva that Russia would back any peaceful settlement to the crisis as long as it did not involve the use of outside force.

A U.S. State Department team will visit Moscow this week to discuss the Syria crisis, a top official said Tuesday as Western pressure mounted on Russia to back new action against its Soviet-era ally.

"We are in the process of meeting (U.S. Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton's deputies who work on the Middle East and Syria in particular," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA Novosti state news agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin started a visit to China Tuesday aimed at bolstering a crucial alliance, with foreign policy to the fore as the neighbors seek to block action against Syria.

Putin will also meet the presidents of Iran and Afghanistan as part of a regional summit during the three-day visit, his first to Asia since starting an historic third term last month.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Georgia's leaders Tuesday to strengthen their democracy by ensuring that upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections are "free and fair".

Clinton also reaffirmed U.S. support for the territorial integrity of the former Soviet republic that is a strong U.S. ally, calling on Russia to pull back its forces from Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Syrian government troops fought deadly battles with armed rebels on Monday as the European Union pushed for an end to a split with Russia over how to end the 15-month bloodshed.

In talks in Saint Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU and Russia "might have some divergent assessments" of the situation in Syria.

Russia and the European Union must overcome their differences on the crisis in Syria to prevent a full-scale civil war, the EU president said Monday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Herman Van Rompuy, who is in Russia with EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to meet with Putin, admitted after the talks that the EU and Russia "might have some divergent assessments" over the situation in Syria.

A military court handed stiff prison terms to 19 Ukrainians, three nationals from Belarus and two Russians accused of serving as mercenaries for ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi in Libya's conflict last year.

One of the Russians, judged to have been the coordinator, was condemned to life imprisonment while the others were sentenced to 10 years' hard labor.