The "Friends of Syria" conference held in Tunisia over the weekend was "unilateral" and did not stimulate peaceful dialogue in the country, Russia's foreign minister said on Monday.
"We had the impression that the meeting did not create conditions that would stimulate all Syrians to start political dialogue," Sergei Lavrov said during talks with Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in Moscow.
Lavrov said Russia "did not understand the status of the document" distributed by delegates of Saturday's "unilateral" meeting. Russia and China refused to attend the meeting, sparking an angry reaction from the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they were "setting themselves" against the Arab awakening and called the countries' vetoes of a UN resolution on Syria "despicable." China on Monday called Clinton's criticism "totally unacceptable" and said she was "very arrogant" to claim to speak for the Arab people.
In Moscow on Monday, Lavrov vowed that Russia would continue to "call for pressure on those taking part in violence there right now."
Syrian rights groups say the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad claimed more than 7,000 lives.
The government says around 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists."
Delegates in Tunisia issued a declaration calling on Damascus to end violence immediately and to endorse the main opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), as a "credible" voice of opposition. Delegates from more than 70 countries also called on President Assad to allow humanitarian access and vowed to step up sanctions against the regime.
Lavrov's comments came a day after Syria held a national referendum on a new constitution, amid continuing violence.
Lavrov hailed the ballot, which was rejected by opposition groups as a farce.
"I think those who see it as a movement towards democratization are right," he said.
