Russia to promote its own Syria resolution at U.N.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will continue to promote its own draft resolution on Syria in the U.N. Security Council, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

The remarks indicated that a Western-Arab draft resolution supporting a plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside will be a tough sell for Russia, a veto-wielding council member, but he did not rule out a compromise.

"Russia introduced its own draft and worked on it taking into account amendments (suggested) by our Western colleagues. It remains on the negotiating table. Consultations on the draft continue and we hope this work will continue," Lukashevich said.

"I have no definite information that the ... Western draft will be introduced in the coming days -- we'll see," he said. "For now ... Russia has its own draft and will actively promote it within the framework of the Security Council."

(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Thomas Grove)