United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the Security Council to take “serious” action against Syria, where he says casualties from a 10-month opposition uprising have reached “unacceptable” levels.

Speaking Monday, January 16, on a visit to Abu Dhabi, Mr. Ban appealed to the Council to act in a “coherent” manner in resolving the Syrian crisis. Western powers have been pushing the body for months to condemn the Syrian government's violent suppression of the uprising, but Russia and China have blocked such action.

Western diplomats said a revised Russian draft resolution on the violence in Syria that was sent to the Security Council Monday is confusing and does not make clear whether Moscow would accept tough language demanded by the West. Experts from the 15 Council members meet Tuesday, Jan. 17 to discuss the new draft, Russia's third in the past month.

Also Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister M.L. Bogdanov met his U.S. counterpart, William Burns, in Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry says Bogdanov stressed that other nations should respect Syria's sovereignty and help its people peacefully settle their own crisis.

Mr. Ban praised the Arab League for holding a dialogue with Mr. Assad and sending observers to Syria last month. According to U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey, a small group of U.N. rights experts will travel to Cairo to train the Arab League observers this week, at the request of the regional bloc, Voice of America reported.