Speaker Nabih Berri has not yet launched efforts to end the political deadlock in Lebanon, however the recent meeting between his envoy Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi may be the beginning of such efforts, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Sunday.

It also pointed out to the rapprochement between the Mustaqbal Movement and Berri’s AMAL party, adding that direct talks between the two sides will be held after the February 14 ceremony marking the anniversary of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Saturday condemned China and Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis, saying it encouraged the Syrian regime crackdown.

"The Syrian tragedy must stop," said Sarkozy in a statement issued through his office.

Russia and China's veto Saturday of a U.N. resolution on the bloodshed in Syria is a "shockingly callous betrayal" of the Syrian people, Amnesty International said.

Moscow and Beijing have acted in a "completely irresponsible" way, the London-based human rights group added.

Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud on Saturday accused Syrian rebels of shelling the protest hub of Homs to swing a U.N. Security Council vote in their favor.

"The reports on some satellite channels that the Syrian army shelled neighborhoods in Homs are fabricated and unfounded," Mahmoud said in a statement to Agence France Presse.

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government's murderous crackdown on protests for the second time.

Western governments reacted with fury to the new block on U.N. action over President Bashar Assad's 10 month-old assault on demonstrators which followed weeks of acrimonious negotiations over the text.

President Barack Obama on Saturday accused Syrian President Bashar Assad's government of murdering civilians in an "unspeakable assault" in the city of Homs, and demanded that Assad step down.

"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," Obama said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Washington will push for a U.N. Security Council vote on Syria later Saturday, a U.S. official said.

However, it was not clear what if any progress Clinton had made in bridging differences with Foreign Minister Lavrov over the terms of an amended Arab- and Western-backed draft resolution in New York.

Russia's state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant acknowledged for the first time Saturday that it had briefly reduced gas supplies to Europe amid a spell of extreme cold.

Gazprom deputy chief Andrey Kruglov reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the cuts lasted for several days and reached up to 10 percent, but supplies are currently back to normal. Officials in Austria and France, however, have reported cuts of as much as 30 percent, and Italy said supplies were down by 24 percent Thursday.

Russia said Saturday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Damascus on Tuesday along with the foreign intelligence service chief for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"On the order of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Fradkov will visit Damascus on February 7 for a meeting with Bashar Assad," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

NASA says it still has confidence in the quality of Russia's manned rockets, despite an embarrassing series of glitches and failures in the Russian space program.

A leak developed recently during a test of the next Soyuz capsule scheduled to launch astronauts to the International Space Station, so Russian space officials have decided not to use it. That delays upcoming launches.