The US and UK denounce Syria's violent crackdown on protesters at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, but members fail to agree on an official statement guardian.co.uk

The deeply divided UN security council failed to agree on a European and US-backed statement condemning Syrian violence against protesters on Wednesday, with Russia saying security forces were also killed and the actions don't threaten international peace.

"A real threat could arise from outside interference or taking of sides," Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Alexander Pankin, warned the UN's most powerful body during a public session that followed, saying this could lead to civil war.

China and India called for political dialogue and peaceful resolution of the crisis, but did not condemn Syria. And Lebanon's UN ambasador, Nawaf Salam, stressed the country's special relationship with Syria, saying "the hearts and minds" of the Lebanese people are with the Syrian people and are suppporting President Bashar Assad's lifting of the state of emergency and his reforms.

France, Britain, Germany and Portugal circulated a draft media statement on Monday calling for the 15-member council to condemn the violence. But during consultations on Wednesday afternoon, several members voiced objections, so at the request of the Europeans and the UN the security council moved into open session to hear a briefing from the UN political chief and statements from council members.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, welcomed the council's inaction and questioned the "unprecedented enthusiasm" shown by some members for the statement and their "lack of such enthusiasm" for attempting to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Syrian ambassador blamed the violence on "extremist groups whose fundamental objective is clearly the fall of the Syrian government" and said law enforcement had acted with the "utmost restraint" to prevent the killing of civilians. He waved a list of 51 members of the armed forces he said were killed "by armed gangs".

Ja'afari said the campaign by extremists began as information surfaced of outside parties "financing acts of sabotage". He pointed to a report of the US government financing an opposition satellite television station and opposition figures bent on ousting Assad.

Ja'afari defended the government's reforms, and said the government had detained members of "extremist circles" in Deraa, the city at the heart of the Syrian uprising, and confiscated weapons including machine-guns. He said those detained admitted their crimes and said they received "large sums for their acts".

But UN political chief, B Lynn Pascoe, and the US and Europeans painted a very different picture of events.

Pascoe told the council that "a review of the reports of media, international human rights groups, UN agencies and diplomatic missions confirm that the overwhelming majority of protests have been peaceful and unarmed".

"However, there have been credible reports of a very few instances where protesters have used force, resulting in the deaths of members of the security forces," said Pascoe.

He said Human Rights Watch documented just one with eyewitness testimony, on 8 April in Deraa.

"There are no confirmed reports that this is a recurring phenomenon," he said, "neither do we have confirmation of reports of security personnel or soldiers being killed by government agents. Some of the overall confusion on this sensitive issue may stem from the widely reported presence of armed security agents and regime supporters in civilian clothes."

The US ambassador, Susan Rice, again accused Syria of "casting blame on outsiders" instead of responding to legitimate calls for reforms from the Syrian people. She reiterated that Iran was supporting the Syrian crackdown using "the same brutal tactics" it used against its own people.

The US and the Europeans warned that unless the Syrian demands for reform are heeded quickly, they will press for additional sanctions.