Russia is ready to host direct talks between the Syrian regime and rebel representatives, a top official said Wednesday, in a bid to end 14 months of bloodshed that has claimed over 10,000 lives.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace mediator Kofi Annan's deputy was trying to secure agreement with the fractured foreign-based Syrian opposition on who could meet Bashar Assad's Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa.

Russia said on Wednesday that Iran was ready to hold serious talks on its nuclear program that could lead to a gradual lifting of sanctions in exchange for broader transparency from Tehran.

"We have a clear understanding... that Iran is ready to agree on concrete actions," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters, without elaborating.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, warned on Wednesday that the conflict in Syria could spread to Lebanon and “end very badly.”

Speaking in a televised news conference, Lavrov said that there is "a tangible threat" of the Syrian uprising spilling over to Lebanon which "could end very badly."

Russia on Wednesday staged the first successful test-launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of breaching defense systems now being developed by NATO, a military spokesman said.

The announcement came less than a week after NATO formally activated the first stage of a missile defense shield whose deployment Russia has bitterly opposed out of fears that it may target its own vast nuclear arsenal.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave seven former cabinet ministers top posts in his Kremlin administration in defiance of opposition pressure for new faces after the protests against his rule.

The swift re-assignment of officials from the government to the Kremlin just one day after they formally left the cabinet further cements Putin's command of Russia and limits the sway of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

World powers and Iran hope to lay the groundwork for an end to the long-running crisis over Tehran's nuclear program in talks in Baghdad on Wednesday, but the challenges are immense.

The meeting with the P5+1 -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- comes at a time of unprecedented tensions more than three years since Barack Obama became U.S. president promising a new dawn in relations.

Forces which have failed to implement their plans to destabilize Syria have turned to Lebanon, Russian’s foreign ministry said on Monday.

"Moscow is seriously concerned by growing internal tensions in Lebanon. It appears that the forces that have failed to realize their plans to destabilize Syria have turned to neighboring Lebanon," the ministry said on its website.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spelled out his views on security, bilateral relations and regional cooperation in a letter to U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, a Russian diplomatic source said Monday.

The letter was delivered by Putin's Kremlin predecessor Dmitry Medvedev who attended the G8 summit at Camp David at the weekend after Putin had cancelled his U.S. visit on the grounds that he was too busy picking a cabinet.

President Vladimir Putin put his stamp on a new government Monday that kept his most trusted allies in charge of finance while leaving tested veterans at the helm of foreign affairs and defense.

But the cabinet also left some room for open-market reformers, with the appointment of a liberal aide of current premier and Putin's predecessor Dmitry Medvedev to a key industry post.

Russia's non-intervention stance on Syria remained unchanged on Saturday as G8 leaders looked to hammer out a joint declaration to put greater pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime.

"There cannot be any change of regime through force," the Kremlin's Africa envoy, Mikhail Margelov said, adding that G8 leaders meeting at Camp David had yet to agree on the Syria part of their final summit declaration.