Russia refuses to attend Syria meeting

* Russia says Tunis meeting will be one-sided

* Proposes U.N. send special envoy to Syria

MOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Russia will not attend an

international meeting on the conflict in Syria this week because

the Syrian government will not be represented, the Russian

Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Friends of Syria, backed by Western powers and the Arab

League, will meet in Tunis on Friday to seek an internatonal

agreement on how to end the violence in Syria and is expected to

put pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted that the only Syrian

representatives would be from the opposition, and suggested that

the United Nations Security Council should send a special

humanitarian envoy to Syria.

"Thus, the meeting can hardly help start all-Syrian national

dialogue in a search for ways to combat the internal crisis,"

ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

"We don't see a possibility for us to take part in the

meeting," he said.

Russia and China vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council

resolution this month that would have backed an Arab plan

calling for Assad to step down. The two countries also voted

against a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly last

week that backed the Arab plan.

The Foreign Ministry made a new call for Europe, the United

States and the Arab region to join forces and bring together the

Syrian opposition and government without preconditions to help

them agree on reforms.

Once reforms are implemented and violence ends, it will be

possible to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Lukashevich said.

"We suggest that the Security Council members tell the U.N.

General Secretary to send a special envoy to Syria to reconcile

the issues of providing safe delivery of humanitarian

shipments," he said.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin had

said on Monday that Moscow was preparing to make proposals on

humanitarian relief for Syria.

(Reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Editing by Timothy

Heritage and Janet Lawrence)