Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday slammed Russian arms deals with Syria, after US media reported further weapons shipments to the Damascus regime.

Livni's comments also come in the wake of a surprise visit by CIA chief John Brennan to Israel to discuss the situation in Israel's war-torn neighbor.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Russia agreed Friday that a peace conference on Syria should be held "as soon as possible" even as Moscow defied growing global pressure over its arms supplies to the Damascus regime.

Ban met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ahead of talks later Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about an impending international meeting on Syria that should include representatives of the two warring parties for the first time.

Iran should take part in an international conference agreed by Moscow and Washington to help broker an end to the Syria conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Lavrov told Lebanese television that Russia believed the conference, which he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Moscow last week, should include Iran, a key Syria ally, while stressing that this had not been agreed.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that more efforts were needed to convince Moscow to drop its support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

"We must have a frank discussion with Russia to convince it that it is in its interests, in the interests of the region, in the interests of peace, to finish with Bashar Assad," Hollande told a press conference.

There is no government strategy to fight the spread of AIDS in Russia, where the number of deaths caused by the disease continues to grow, a senior healthcare official said on Thursday.

"We have no national strategy to fight against AIDS," the director of the Russian Federal Agency against AIDS, Vadim Pokrovsky, told a news conference.

Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of "crude and clumsy" spying on its territory after a suspected CIA agent was caught in Moscow seeking to recruit an agent while disguised in a blonde wig.

The foreign ministry issued an official protest to the U.S. ambassador who it summoned to an early morning meeting, but signs also grew that neither side wanted the Cold War-style incident to develop into a full scale crisis.

A Russian plane carrying humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees has headed to Beirut, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry announced on Wednesday.

“An IL-76 aircraft has headed to the Lebanese capital,” Russia Today television quoted the ministry as saying.

French actor Gerard Depardieu, who was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin, is set to film a thriller in Moscow and Grozny with British actress Elizabeth Hurley.

Hurley revealed on Twitter on Wednesday that she was shopping for costumes in Moscow after arriving to make the film with the veteran French actor.

Russia and the United States on Wednesday sought to limit the damage to already troubled ties from a new spy scandal that erupted when Moscow caught a blonde-wigged alleged CIA agent who was reportedly seeking information on the Boston bombings.

The suspected agent, who Moscow says was caught with a "typical espionage arsenal" of money and disguises, is said to have been working undercover as a low-ranking third secretary at the U.S. embassy.

Syria wants more details of a Russian and U.S. proposal for a peace conference before deciding whether to attend, Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi has said.

Interviewed late Tuesday by the Lebanese Al-Manar television, Zohbi also insisted that Syrian President Bashar Assad's future would be decided at the ballot box.