The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned suicide attacks in the Syrian capital but remained deadlocked on a full resolution on the crisis with the Russian and U.S. ambassadors trading personal barbs.

Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin hit out at what he called the "Stanford dictionary of expletives" used against him by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice.

Tehran's envoy to the U.N. atomic agency said Thursday he would meet the watchdog's chief nuclear inspector in Vienna in the first week of January to arrange a visit to Iran as soon as possible.

"As soon as the holidays are over we will sit down with Mr. (Herman) Nackaerts and arrange the visit," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Agence France Presse.

More than 2,000 members of Syria's security forces have been killed in nine months since anti-regime protests broke out, state news agency SANA said on Thursday.

"In response to a fallacious U.N. report on the situation in Syria, we have informed the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that the number of martyrs has surpassed 2,000 members of the security forces and the army," according to a letter SANA says was sent.

France denounced Wednesday what it said was the "unprecedented massacre" of 120 people by Syrian forces and urged Russia to accelerate talks for a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis.

At his regular briefing, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said: "Everything must be put in motion to end this murderous spiral into which Bashar Assad is dragging his people, deeper each day."

The opposition Syrian National Council on Wednesday urged the U.N. Security Council and Arab League to hold emergency meetings after "massacres" carried out by regime forces.

Reacting to reports this week of the killing of hundreds of civilians, the opposition bloc called for an "emergency U.N. Security Council session to discuss the regime’s massacres in Zawiyah Mountain, Idlib, and Homs, in particular."

The director for United Nations and international organizations in the French Foreign Ministry Nicolas de Riviere renewed on Tuesday France’s support to Lebanon and its commitment to maintaining the stability and security of the South.

The French Embassy said in a statement: “De Riviere informed Lebanese officials during his trip to Lebanon that France will remain part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in order to preserve the stability of Lebanon and the region.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins welcomed on Tuesday Lebanon’s continuing commitment to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

He said after holding talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour: “Lebanon and Israel should be doing more to ensure that the remaining requirements of the resolution are met.”

The Syrian regime organized a show of support on Monday as expectations rose that it was finally set to admit observers to monitor implementation of an Arab deal to end nine months of bloodshed.

Hundreds of supporters of President Bashar Assad gathered in Sabaa Bahrat Square in the city center chanting slogans in support of their beleaguered leader and against the sanctions ordered by the Arab League.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday lifted sanctions on Libya's central bank and a key investment bank freeing tens of billions of dollars to ease a post-Gadhafi cash crunch.

The United States immediately announced it would unblock more than $30 billion dollars of assets of the Central Bank of Libya and its subsidiary, the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB). Britain said it would release more than $10 billion.

France on Friday attacked Russia's proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syrian crisis as "totally unbalanced" and no immediate talks were called on the measure.

Russia, having blocked U.N. action on Syria for months, surprised other members of the 15-nation council on Thursday by putting forward a draft resolution which condemns the violence by all sides in Syria.