DOHA, Nov 21, 2011 (AFP) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Monday ruled out foreign military intervention in Syria and warned of the dangers of civil war in the country rocked by anti-regime protests.

"A military intervention in Syria has not been brought up," Zebari told reporters in Qatar. "We did not see the Arab League urging the (UN) Security Council or foreign countries to intervene."

Zebari echoed US, Russian, and Turkish fears of the bloodshed in Syria escalating into civil war, a risk brushed off by Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Sunday.

"Concern is from the conflict becoming armed or sectarian, which might lead to a civil war," warned Zebari. "We refuse this due to its outcomes on the region."

Zebari also reiterated his defence of Iraq's abstention in a vote which suspended Damascus from the Arab League, emphasising that events in Syria have a direct impact on Iraq.

"We have interests and interdependent relations with Syria," he said. "This is why our position was independent."

The Arab League voted last week to suspend Syria, which has been trying to crush an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime since March.

Zebari also "categorically" denied that Iraqi armed groups were backing the Assad regime's crackdown on demonstrators.

He was apparently referring to reports accusing Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr of sending armed militias to support Syria's ruling Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"We do not support bloodshed, we want wisdom to prevail in resolving" Syria's crisis, said Zebari.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in the Syrian government's lethal crackdown on protests, according to UN figures.