Chinese state media on Saturday accused the U.S. and Europe of "harboring hegemonistic ambitions" in Syria, after Western and Arab nations ratcheted up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad at a meeting in Tunisia.

In a commentary Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said that "most of the Arab countries have begun to realize that the United States and Europe are hiding a dagger behind a smile".

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of seeking "regime change" in Iran and warned Washington that Russia intended to keep its nuclear weapons to keep U.S. power in check.

"Under the guise of trying to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction ... they are attempting something else entirely and setting different goals -- regime change," news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is heading for victory in the first round of the presidential election by winning well over 50 percent of the vote, pollsters said on Friday.

There had been talk that Putin might be forced into a second round of voting -- for the first time in his political career -- to win the election, in which he is seeking a third term as president after his four year stint as prime minister.

Bashar al-Assad is not ready to resign and claims to feel strong support despite 11 months of deadly protests, a top Russian lawmaker who met the Syrian president in Damascus this week said Friday.

"I met Assad and did not get the impression that this is a person who is ready to leave power tomorrow," Alexei Pushkov, the head of the international affairs committee of the State Duma lower house, told reporters.

A Syria-based opposition group said it was boycotting the international "Friends of Syria" meeting being held on Friday in Tunis on the future of the country, complaining of exclusion and fearing escalated militarization.

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC) denounced what it described as attempts to leave the door open to militarize the uprising against the regime of Bashar Assad, and for foreign military intervention.

Russia and China on Thursday rejected pressure to change their position on Syria after vetoing a United Nations resolution condemning the Damascus regime for its bloody crackdown on the opposition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi to discuss the two powers' future strategy on the crisis, less than a month after the U.N. Security Council vote.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will not fall and Iran stands beside it, the top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Syrian government and will oppose those who act against Syria," Ali Akbar Velayati said in remarks reported by the Fars news agency.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Thursday issued a battle-cry to tens of thousands of supporters packing Moscow's largest sports stadium as he predicted victory in next month's presidential election.

Putin declared in a fiery and nationalist-tinged speech to 130,000 people in the Luzhniki stadium that Russians had victory written into their "genetic code" and would not allow foreigners to meddle in their country's affairs.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described the Russian veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis in Syria as “doomed.”

“It formed an alibi for the West to stand idly by… We all know that they can interfere at least to impose a ceasefire and save Homs and the Syrian people,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper on Thursday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in telephone talks on Wednesday that they reject foreign intervention in the Syria crisis, the Kremlin said.

"The sides spoke out in favor of the quickest resolution of the crisis by the Syrian people themselves through exclusively peaceful means and without foreign intervention," the Kremlin said in a statement.