The Syrian government believes the civil war ravaging the country has reached a stalemate and would call for a ceasefire if long-stalled peace talks in Geneva were to take place, the deputy prime minister told Britain's Guardian on Thursday.

"Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side," Qadri Jamil told the newspaper.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he could run for a fourth presidential term in 2018. If he does and wins, that would keep him in power for about a quarter century and make him the nation's longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin.

Putin, who served two consecutive four-year terms starting in 2000, became prime minister in 2008 to observe a constitutional limit of two consecutive terms. He remained in charge as prime minister, with his loyal associate, Dmitry Medvedev, serving as a placeholder.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his friend, Italy's convicted former premier Silvio Berlusconi would not have gone on trial for sex with a minor if he was gay.

"Berlusconi is on trial for living with women, but if he were a homosexual, nobody would dare touch him," Putin said during a discussion with international experts and journalists at the Valdai Club in the northwestern Novgorod region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was confident but not 100 percent sure that Syria would carry out its commitments to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles under a Russia-U.S. agreement.

"Will we manage to carry it through? I can't say 100 percent, but all that we have seen recently, in the last few days, inspires confidence that it is possible and that it will be done," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club with Western politicians and journalists in the northwestern Novgorod region.

Russian ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin stressed on Thursday the importance of Lebanon's stability and the need to preserve it in light of regional unrest.

He said after holding talks with caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel: “The international community is protecting Lebanon from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.”

The five U.N. Security Council powers held new talks Wednesday on a resolution backing a Russia-U.S. plan to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, diplomats said.

Western nations, who say they are not looking for an immediate threat of force against President Bashar Assad, could seek a Security Council vote this weekend if agreement can be reached with Russia.

France on Wednesday rejected a claim by Russia that a UN report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was biased.

"Nobody can question the objectivity of the people (inspectors) appointed by the UN," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a press conference here, adding that he was "very surprised" by Russia's assertion, made earlier in the day by deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday thanked key backer Russia for helping his regime face down a "savage attack" by Western-backed rebels, state television reported.

Russia is helping "create... a new global balance", Assad said, after Moscow opposed the use of force should the Damascus regime refuse to abide by an agreement to hand over its chemical weapons stockpile.

Moscow will send the United Nations information it received from Syria implicating rebels in last month's chemical attack, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

Lavrov's deputy said earlier he had met Syrian President Bashar Assad and received "evidence" from Damascus implicating the rebels in the August 21 gas attack, which the United States says killed 1,400 people and was perpetrated by the government.

The United States said Tuesday that Russia is ignoring "the facts" in Syria when it accuses the rebels, rather than the regime, of staging the August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow believes the August 21 gassing was a "provocation."