Syrian government forces reasserted control of Damascus suburbs Tuesday after beating back rebels at the capital's gates as diplomatic pressure mounted on President Bashar al-Assad at the United Nations.
Western and Arab diplomats pushed for a UN Security Council resolution, which would call for Assad to step down to defuse a 10-month-old uprising against his rule.
They will make the case for a resolution adopting a plan by the Arab League for Assad to quit, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Britain's William Hague presenting a united Western front.
The resolution's fate depends on whether the Arabs and their Western backers can persuade Russia not to veto it.
However, a senior Russian diplomat said in Moscow the move would only set the stage for civil war, Interfax News Agency reported.
"The Western draft Security Council resolution on Syria will not lead to a search for compromise," it quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying. "Pushing it is a path to civil war."
On the battlefront, activists in eastern districts of Damascus said troops fired in the air as they advanced beyond areas from which the defector Free Syrian Army withdrew, capping three days of fighting activists said killed at least 100 people.
Government troops were on the move as Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and the prime minister of Qatar readied the appeal to the Security Council to back their call for Assad to quit power and prepare for elections.
Washington said countries needed to accept that Assad's rule was doomed and stop shielding him in the Security Council.
"It is important to calculate into your considerations the fact that he will go," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.
Syria dismissed the US remarks.
"We are not surprised at the lack of wisdom or rationality of these statements and regret that they are still issued by countries that are used to making the Middle East an arena for their follies and failures," the state news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.
A draft of the UN Security Council resolution, obtained by Reuters, calls for a "political transition" in Syria, and says the Security Council could adopt unspecified further measures if Syria does not comply with its terms.
It endorses the Arab League power transfer plan. So far Moscow has shown little sign of being persuaded to let it pass.
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