WASHINGTON - The United States reiterated on Monday that it does not favor foreign military intervention in Syria at the moment amid lingering speculation that Washington might use force to achieve a regime change in Syria as protracted violence tests the patience of the international community.

"Based on where we are now, based on our continuing concern that foreign military intervention in this situation is not clearly going to save lives and may actually cause a greater explosion of violence for a whole variety of reasons, we are taking the step now to do what we can with the UN monitors..." State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a regular news briefing.

"The concern has been that putting foreign military forces into this situation, which is on the verge, as everybody has said, of becoming a civil war, will turn it into a proxy war," Nuland said.

She said the "better course of action" is to use all the economic, political and other pressures available to smother support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The United States and its Western allies have long urged President al-Assad to step down to start a political transition. They have been using a recent spike in violence to condemn the Syrian government and have stepped up pressure on Damascus.

The Syrian government has repeatedly said outside armed terrorists should be blamed for the bloodshed and Damascus has been trying to restore order in the violence-stricken Arab country.

The Obama administration is under pressure to take concrete measures to back up its proclaimed intention to see President al-Assad go, but it remains cautious about launching yet another war in the volatile Middle East in an election year and amid rising concerns of the voters about chronic economic problems.

It is also reluctant to engage in major war efforts in the Middle East while trying to move more military resources to the economically dynamic Asia-Pacific in a crucial strategic shift.

Last month, White House spokesman Jay Carney also said that the White House still stuck to its position of no military intervention in Syria, for fear that such a move would only lead to "greater chaos, greater carnage."

Russia and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council, have reiterated in recent days that they oppose any foreign military intervention in Syria.

Unlike the Western countries, which have focused blame and pressure almost entirely on the Syrian government, Russia and China advocate a more balanced approach to the Syrian issue and they have urged all relevant Syrian parties to quit violence, thus paving the way for a negotiated resolution.

On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said in Moscow that the use of force against Syria would only worsen the situation there.

He stressed that Moscow rejects any additional pressure and sanctions or the use of force against Syria, urging all countries with influence over both the Syrian government and opposition to join efforts to facilitate a political settlement to the current crisis in line with UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

Meanwhile, Gatilov said that Russia supports Annan's proposal of setting up an international contact group to bring together key global and regional players to help put an early end to the 16-month Syria crisis.

China on Thursday repeated its firm opposition to "outside armed intervention" in Syria or "any attempt to forcibly promote regime change" in Syria.

Li Baodong, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, told a UN General Assembly session that "China stands ready to play its positive and constructive role in finding an early peaceful and proper solution to the Syrian question."

"We steadfastly safeguard the basic norms governing international relations and strive to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East region. And with our specific actions, we have called for peace and promoted negotiations," he said.