The Syrian crisis cannot be solved by simply overthrowing the president, and the focus of international efforts should be shifted to ending the violence and saving the people, analysts said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday criticized Russia and China for their stance on Syria.

Clinton said at the "Friends of Syria" meeting in Paris that Russia and China will "pay a price" for helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad keep power in Damascus.

As the violence drags on, Western countries, led by the United States, still have not given up their efforts to "coerce or allure" Assad to step down, according to Dong Manyuan, deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies.

"They believe that all the problems will be solved only if Assad resigns, and they have forced other countries to accept that logic.

"But as a matter of fact, it is only the most cost-efficient way for them to realize the so-called regime change," he said.

Syria's military began large-scale exercises simulating defense against outside "aggression", with naval forces in a scenario where they repelled an attack from the sea, and will include air and ground forces over the next few days, the state-run news agency SANA said on Sunday.

The first thing that both the Syrian government and the opposition parties need to do now is stop the violence, according to a Russian scholar.

"The main thing is how to save the country and how to save the population of the country," Igor Ivanov, president of the Russian International Affairs Council and former Russian foreign minister, said at a forum in Beijing on Sunday. "We cannot leave Syria in anarchy," he added.

China rebuffed Clinton's accusation on Saturday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said her comments were "totally unacceptable".

"On the Syria problem, China's fair and constructive stance and its contributions toward diplomatic efforts have attained the wide understanding and support of relevant parties in the international community," Liu said in a statement.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Friday that Clinton's statement went against the strategy for ending the violence in Syria that was agreed by world powers earlier in Geneva.

"The statement (by Clinton) was incorrect," Gatilov said. "What worries us more than anything is that such remarks go against the final document of the Geneva talks, the adoption of which was approved with the participation of the US secretary of state."

UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus on Sunday to hold talks with Syrian officials regarding his faltering peace plan. He said on Saturday that the international community's efforts to bring the 16-month unrest to an end politically have failed.

Reuters and Xinhua contributed to this story.

qinzhongwei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/09/2012 page11)