MOSCOW warned Washington yesterday against military action in Syria after US State Department staff called again for regime change.

Kremlin, Foreign and Defence Ministry spokespeople responded sharply to the leaked US State Department “dissent channel cable” from 51 middle-ranking diplomats urging President Barack Obama to bomb Syria.

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times both published extracts from the memo calling for “use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed US-led diplomatic process.”

It said the aim would be to force the Syrian government to negotiate with Western-backed insurgents — including religious extremists.

But while the Syrian government is committed to UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva, the Saudi Arabia-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) has repeatedly stormed out.

Its constituent groups have repeatedly breached the ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington to attack civilians.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of protecting al-Qaida’s Syrian branch the Nusra Front — an ally of several HNC factions — in hope of using it as a tool of regime change.

He said the US was “playing some kind of game here, and they may want to keep Nusra in some form and use it to topple the regime.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has supported US military action in Syria, told reporters in the Danish capital Copenhagen yesterday: “I think it’s an important statement.”

But a Kremlin spokesman said attempts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government “wouldn’t help a successful fight against terrorism and could plunge the region into total chaos.”

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hoped “the US and partners will not repeat the old mistakes regarding solving crises by force.”

Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said the leaked document “can’t but worry any reasonable person.”

“Who would bear responsibility for that?” he asked. “Or shall we see the same Hollywood-style smile as it happened already in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya?”

President Vladimir Putin reiterated that the only solution to the conflict was through drafting a new constitution and holding new elections. “There is nothing more democratic than elections,” he said.