Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the West of playing a "double game" with "terrorist" groups in Syria.

His comments came as Moscow and a United States-led coalition are conducting separate bombing campaigns.

"It's always difficult to play a double game: declaring a fight against terrorists while simultaneously trying to use some of them to arrange the pieces on the Middle East chess board in one's own interests," Putin said at a meeting of political scientists in Sochi known as the Valdai Club. "It is impossible to prevail over terrorism if some of (them) are being used as a battering ram to overthrow undesirable governments."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was set to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as their Turkish and Saudi counterparts, in Vienna on Friday.

They will hold crucial talks on the Syrian conflict, a four-year war that has killed more 250,000 people and forced millions from their homes.

The high-level meeting follows the surprise visit of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Moscow for talks with Putin on Tuesday, the leader's first foreign visit since 2011.

Assad, who last visited Russia in 2008, told Putin that the three-week Russian bombing campaign had helped to stop the spread of terrorism in his country.

(China Daily 10/24/2015 page10)