By Anna Malpas

MOSCOW, Feb 08, 2012 (AFP) - Russian strongman Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday against foreigners behaving "like a bull in a china shop" towards Syria after his envoy returned from talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

"Of course, we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

"We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently."

He spoke after his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declined to say earlier Wednesday whether Moscow had asked the embattled leader to go in his meeting with Assad.

"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," Lavrov told reporters.

He sidestepped a direct question from a reporter who asked him whether he urged Assad to step down during talks in Damascus Tuesday, conducted as Syrian forces shelled opposition centres in the city of Homs.

"Trying in advance to decide the result of national dialogue is basically not the job of the international community," Lavrov said, adding that both the government and all the opposition forces should sit down for talks.

All those who have influence over the Syrian opposition forces should urge them to start negotiations with Assad's government, he added.

Some analysts said Lavrov's most recent remarks indicated Moscow had not shifted its stance on Syria.

"Judging by Lavrov's statements after his Damascus visit the question of Assad's resignation has not been raised," said Boris Dolgov, an analyst at the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies.

"It would have been strange anyway -- why would Russia start talking about his resignation after having vetoed the Syria resolution" in the United Nations.

Lavrov quoted Assad as saying he told Vice President Faruq al-Shara "to contact all opposition groups and to organise a national dialogue that will be inclusive and encompass all Syrian political forces."

Lavrov, who was given a hero's welcome in Damascus by pro-Assad demonstrators, also said that recalling envoys from Syria would not help the Arab League's plan.

"I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League's plan," he said after talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

A day after the United States closed its Damascus embassy, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain joined Britain and Belgium on Tuesday in recalling their ambassadors to Syria for consultations.

The six Arab states of the Persian Gulf also said they had decided to expel Syria's envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus in protest at the "mass slaughter" of civilians.

Lavrov also criticised a "hasty decision" by the Arab League to freeze the work of its observer mission in Syria.

"The presence of foreign observers always plays a restraining role and it was unclear why a number of Gulf states recalled their envoys from this mission and why the mission after that was suspended at the very moment its report was supposed to be heard at the UN Security Council," he said.

After Tuesday's talks Lavrov said Russia would work to end the crisis under a peace plan put forward by the Arab League and that Assad was ready for dialogue with all political forces.

But he did not specify whether he was referring to the latest Arab League plan calling for Assad to step down or a November plan that called for an observer mission and an end to violence.

Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its Security Council veto to block UN action against Assad's regime based on the more recent Arab League plan.

Seeking to address Western criticism that Russia missed a chance to end bloodshed, Lavrov Wednesday defended Russia's veto, saying Moscow had prevented wider opposition violence.

"We have missed an opportunity to allow the armed units that are fighting against government forces to take control of cities and villages," Lavrov said sarcastically.

"If the authors of the resolution have this goal in mind, then you should directly say that we want the armed units to take control of cities in Syria."

"You need to speak honestly with your partners," he added. "Half of the truth is worse than a lie."

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