Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday condemned as "hysterical" the West's angry reaction to a Russian veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown on protestors in Syria.

"Some comments from the West on the U.N. Security Council vote, I would say, are indecent and bordering on hysteria," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. "Such hysterical comments are aimed at suppressing what is actually happening."

The Arab League will continue working to end political violence in Syria to stave off foreign military intervention after Russia and China blocked a U.N. resolution condemning Damascus, league chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday.

Arabi said the 22-member organization would continue working with the Syrian regime and opposition for a "political solution" to Damascus' deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The United States should look at providing weapons and other aid to Syrian rebels if Russia and China refuse to reconsider their vetoes of a U.N. resolution against Damascus, a top U.S. senator said Sunday.

Senator Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said the Syrian people "have shown extraordinary courage in the face of a government much stronger than they are" and "they are not going to be denied."

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.

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 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.

Syria's army randomly bombarded the protest hub of Homs early on Saturday, killing at least 260 civilians in one of the "most horrific massacres" in the country's uprising, an opposition group said.

In a statement, the Syrian National Council also called on the world to act, and demanded that Russia change its position, condemn President Bashar Assad's regime and allow democracy.