A U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria could mention an article which allows force or sanctions, a top Russian diplomat said Tuesday, as Moscow and Washington seek a compromise on a text backing a deal to rid the regime of chemical weapons.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stressed that the key Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter could be invoked only if the chemical weapons accord agreed between Russia and the United States is violated by either side in the Syrian conflict.

Russian objections to a tough U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria's chemical weapons are holding up an international plan to destroy President Bashar Assad's banned poison arms, diplomats said Monday.

With world leaders gathering at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, the deadlock is a new blow to international efforts to halt the 30-month-old conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called any possible foreign military intervention against Syria a form of "aggression" that would rattle the entire region and contravene international law.

Putin told a summit of an ex-Soviet security group that he was grateful for its decision to support Moscow's refusal to sanction strikes against President Bashar Assad's regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons.

Syrian President Bashar Assad accused foreign nations of giving orders to "terrorists" battling his government's forces in an interview with China's state CCTV broadcast Monday.

He spoke as U.N. Security Council members negotiate a resolution on how to respond if Syria fails to fulfill an international deal to eliminate its chemical weapons arsenal.

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will head the country's delegation to the annual U.N. General Assembly, the pro-regime al-Watan newspaper said on Monday.

Muallem will address the United Nations on September 30, the newspaper said, adding that the delegation, including Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad, will leave soon for New York.

Two officials were killed and more than 10 people were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb on Monday in the volatile Russian Caucasus region of Dagestan, investigators and police said.

A Lada car was driven near a police station in the Dagestani village of Khuchni early Monday morning and was detonated as it came to a sudden halt, regional police said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday accused the United States of blackmailing Russia over a tough U.N. resolution against Syria, and said the West is blinded by the idea of regime change in the war-torn country.

"Our American partners are beginning to blackmail us: if Russia won't support a resolution under Chapter VII in the U.N. Security Council, then we will stop the work in the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Lavrov said in a Channel One interview, according to Russian agencies.

Russia may change its position on Syria if it sees any "cheating" by the regime, a senior Kremlin official said Saturday as Damascus disclosed details of its chemical stockpile in the first step of a disarmament plan.

"I am speaking theoretically and hypothetically, but if we become convinced that (Syrian President Bashar) Assad is cheating, we can change our position," the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

U.S. teen idol Selena Gomez has cancelled two shows in Russia because she failed to obtain a visa under new rules introduced after stars such as Madonna used concerts to promote gay rights.

Gomez has cancelled concerts planned in St. Petersburg and Moscow for Monday and Wednesday because delays meant she would not receive her visa in time, organizers said.

Three Baltic NATO states on Friday questioned the purpose of major war games by Russia and Belarus close to their borders, accusing their Soviet-era master Moscow of a secret "anti-West" agenda.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, former Soviet states that are now members of the western alliance, all expressed concern about the scale of military manoeuvres publicly intended to prepare defenses against terrorism.