MOSCOW: Russia said Tuesday it will not attend an international conference in Tunis this week aimed at seeking political change in Syria because the meeting only supported the opposition's cause.

The meeting was called "for the purpose of supporting one side against another in an internal conflict," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We cannot accept the offer to attend this meeting."

The Friends of Syria group will meet for the first time Friday after being created in a reponse to a joint veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning President Bashar Assad for the violence.

The group is backed by members of the European Union as well as some Arab nations and the United States.

Russia's statement said the meeting would be unable to improve dialogue between Assad's government and the opposition on ways of ending 11 months of violence that opposition sources say have killed more than 6,000 people.

"The invitations to attend the Tunis meeting were issued to some parts of the opposition, but representatives of the Syrian government were not invited," the statement said.

"This means that the interests of the majority of the Syrian population, which supports the authorities, will not be represented."