President Vladimir Putin met European Union leaders Monday for summit talks where the EU is expected to put pressure on Russia to harden its position on the Syria and Iran crises.

Putin on Sunday evening met EU President Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, for an informal dinner in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Russia Sunday to get behind a political transition in Syria, saying President Bashar Assad's departure was not a precondition but should be "an outcome".

Clinton spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by telephone at the weekend to say that Washington and Moscow needed to work together on a plan that would halt the violence and bring about political change in the country.

French President Francois Hollande said Friday that no solution is possible in Syria without "the departure of Bashar Assad.”

He spoke at a press conference with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Germany on Friday urged Russia to curb its support for Damascus, ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Berlin and Paris that is set to be dominated by the escalating Syria crisis.

"In our view Russia should recognize that we are not working against Russian strategic interests when we want to stop the violence in Syria," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Die Welt ahead of Putin's arrival.

Russia has worked "constructively" on the Syria crisis at the U.N. Security Council, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, a day before she hosts talks with the Russian president.

"Russia has cooperated constructively in the U.N. Security Council," Merkel told a press conference in the German town of Stralsund at the end of a Baltic Sea summit of heads of government from 11 countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday criticized Russia's resistance to U.N. action on Syria, warning that its policy could contribute to a civil war.

The Russians "are telling me they don't want to see a civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going help to contribute to a civil war," she told a mainly student audience on a visit to Copenhagen.

President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that Russia's position on Syria would not shift under pressure despite the crisis likely topping the agenda during his upcoming visits to Berlin and Paris.

"Russia's position is well-known. It is balanced and consistent and completely logical," Interfax quoted Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Russia said on Wednesday it was "premature" for the U.N. Security Council to take new action on Syria after the massacre of 108 civilians in the city of Houla.

"We believe that a review now by the Security Council of any new measures on the situation would be premature," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

The United States said Tuesday that it hopes the massacre in Syria sparks a "turning point" in Russia's reluctance to take tougher action against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Washington welcomes the fact "that the Russians are willing to have a full investigation (of the massacre) because we think it's undisputable what that investigation is going to show," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Russia on Tuesday called for an "objective and impartial" U.N.-led probe into last week's massacre in the Syrian city of Houla that killed 108 people and left some 300 wounded.

"At this stage, there should be an objective and impartial investigation conducted under the auspices of the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement after telephone talks between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and international peace envoy Kofi Annan.