British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday, January 17 that a UN Security Council resolution on Syria was "long overdue", but it was unlikely Russia would let the UN body take any serious action.

Hague said he had asked the Arab League, which has a monitoring mission in Syria, to come to the United Nations and suggest a way forward in the crisis over President Bashar al-Assad's 10-month crackdown on protests.

"I believe the time is long overdue for the UN Security Council to be able to speak on Syria and speak with a united voice," Hague told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

"When we last tried this on October 4 our resolution was vetoed by Russia and by China. I am not optimistic that that would be a different situation with regard to Russia at the moment. "But we will continue to discuss that with Russia and I think it would be helpful if the Arab League came directly to the Security Council."

Hague's comments came shortly after France said that a new Russian draft resolution at the Security Council on the Syrian crisis was inadequate, AFP reported.

Russia produced the draft on Monday after facing weeks of criticism over the slow pace of talks, diplomats said.

Russia and China said the resolution they vetoed in October was a move by Western nations toward regime change in Syria.

Diplomats said the latest text distributed by Russia will be discussed by experts on Tuesday.

The new text, however, only takes the existing Russian resolution and adds a list of amendments proposed by the European nations and the United States.