Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad vowed yesterday to continue protests until his “tyrannical” regime is overthrown, as the embattled leader praised Moscow’s “balanced” position on the unrest in a meeting with Russian lawmakers.

“We need to end the tyrannical security regime. We must overthrow the tyranny and the security (agents). We welcome all those who have no blood on their hands,” said Hassan Abdel Azim, a member of the opposition National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change.

The group, which includes opposition parties of various ideologies, including Arab and Kurdish nationalists, Marxists and independent figures such as writer Michel Kilo and economist Aref Dalila, met near the capital on Saturday to discuss how to end the crisis.

Syria has been rocked by protests against Mr Assad that began on March 15 and triggered a brutal crackdown in which the United Nations says 2,600 people have been killed.

Mr Assad yesterday praised Moscow’s “balanced” position on Syria, in talks with a Russian delegation on a mission to help end the government crackdown on protesters.

Mr Assad welcomed the “balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria,” the state-run Sana news agency reported.

It said Mr Assad denounced “attempts to destabilise Syria through armed terrorist operations, both civilian and military,” and warned against “any foreign intervention that threatens to divide states in the region.”

Mr Assad’s government has blamed the protests on “armed terrorist gangs.”

Russia has continued to support Mr Assad despite the crackdown on protests that the UN estimates to have killed around 2,600 people, and has been a bulwark against any Security Council resolution condemning the regime.

Ilyas Umakhanov, deputy head of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, held discussions with Assad that were “open, trust-based and substantial,” Russia’s Interfax news agency said.

“It confirmed that the country’s leadership understands that one can only overcome a political crisis by uniting all the country’s healthy political forces.”

“We once again saw for ourselves that the country’s leadership intends to firmly move along the path of political reforms, create all the necessary conditions to consolidate society and all the patriotic forces of the country,” the Russian senator was quoted as saying.

The Russian delegation also plans to visit the flashpoint town of Daraa and opposition cities of Homs and Hama, according to Interfax.