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MOSCOW – Russia called on Friday for negotiations as soon as possible between Libyan rebels and Muammar Gaddafi's government and emphasised Moscow's opposition to any foreign interference in Syria or other regional states, Reuters reported.

In wide-ranging remarks in Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said Iran must engage in "serious conversation" with global powers to dispel concerns it could be seeking nuclear weapons, Russian news agencies reported.

He said Russia's talks with the West on European missile defence cooperation were going slowly and suggested a political push from U.S. President Barack Obama's administration was needed to bring progress in time for a Group of Eight summit this month.

"We do not want the Libya scenario to be repeated -- not to mention that the situation in Libya itself must be brought into a political channel as swiftly as possible," Interfax quoted Lavrov as telling Russian journalists.

"It is necessary to utilise the services of the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy and the mediation proposals of the African Union in order to sit down and seek agreement without any conditions," Lavrov was quoted as saying.

He suggested a resolution of the conflict would usher in a new government but that talks with Gaddafi's government were unavoidable.

The result of dialogue "will be a new political system, but it is necessary to seek agreement also with those upon whom the prospects for calming the situation depends", Lavrov said.

Russia says a Western-led coalition conducting air strikes in Libya is overstepping its U.N. Security Council mandate to protect civilians, and has vocally opposed foreign intervention in other conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.

Lavrov said that efforts to end bloody confrontation in Syria were complicated by "the desire of some participants in these processes to attract external forces to support their actions", Interfax reported.

"Efforts to multiply the Libyan experience in other countries and regions is very dangerous, whether it is Yemen, Syria, Bahrain," state-run RIA quoted Lavrov as saying.

On Iran, which has been involved in a diplomatic to-and-fro with Russia and five other global powers over potential new talks on its nuclear programme, Lavrov said Tehran must not avoid questions about activities that fuel suspcion.

He said any talks with Iran would have to include "a serious discussion of the Iranian nuclear programme", Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.

"We all want to be 100 percent certain that there is no military element" in Iran's nuclear programme, he said.

Lavrov said talks on cooperation between Russia and NATO on a European anti-missile shield, which Moscow says is crucial for the future of ties with the West, have been difficult.

He said he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had agreed at a meeting on Thursday "that it is necessary to give a political impulse to the work of experts" discussing the issue in order to be able to report progress to Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a G8 meeting in late May.