THE Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, held discussions with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, last night in the hope of securing Moscow's support for a joint European-Arab proposal for the resignation of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.

But the meeting did not appear to change Russia's intention to veto the US Security Council draft resolution. Speaking to ABC's Lateline last night, Mr Lavrov said Syria must be left to sort its own problems out.

''Russia will not support anything which … should impose [conditions] on Syria,'' he said. ''Yes, we condemn strongly the use of force by government forces against civilians but we condemn in the same strong way the activities of the armed extremist groups who attack government positions … and terrorise people.''

He confirmed that Russia was selling arms to Syria but denied they were used against civilians. The meeting in Sydney touched on Russia's intentions in the Asia-Pacific and its stronger economic co-operation with Australia.

Mr Rudd expressed Australia's desire that Russia exercise transparency regarding its dealings with the military regime in Fiji.

Mr Lavrov is in Sydney as part of a trip through the Asia-Pacific, which will end with meetings with the Fijian regime of Voreqe ''Frank'' Bainimarama this week.

There is concern that Russia is trading foreign aid to small Pacific Island nations in return for support for the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Last week a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Canberra denied that it had traded aid for diplomatic support last year and had no such intentions in Fiji.