French President Francois Hollande believes it would be possible to come to a political decision on the Syrian conflict in the coming weeks.
"I think that in the next few weeks we will manage to find a political solution that will stop the conflict from escalating," Hollande told Echo of Moscow radio station on Thursday in comments translated into Russian.
"A lot will depend on the position of President Putin and on our position too, of course.
"We must finally start the process of political dialogue that has not yet started on the territory of Syria," Hollande said during a visit to Moscow.
Hollande said he intended to discuss the political transition in Syria and the need for President Bashar al-Assad to step down when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday afternoon.
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Hollande reaffirmed that France, like other Western powers, was calling for Assad to step down, while Russia's position is that only Syrians must decide the fate of their country.
"We understand very well that the Syrian opposition is growing and it is becoming more legitimate, it is taking on itself some of the responsibility for the future of the country," Hollande said.
Syria's opposition and foreign powers will hold crucial talks in Rome on Thursday with Washington suggesting it is ready to boost support to rebels.
The Friends of Syria meeting comes after new US Secretary of State John Kerry said the opposition needs "more help" in the fight against Assad and that Washington wants to speed up the crisis-hit country's political transition.
It also comes ahead of an important meeting of the main opposition National Coalition on Saturday in Istanbul, where the umbrella group is to elect a prime minister and government to run parts of Syria seized from Assad's control.
Momentum has been building ahead of Thursday's Rome talks, with the opposition - which initially vowed a boycott - lured back to the 11-nation meeting after the US and Britain promised specific offers of help.
In Paris as part of a European tour on Wednesday, Kerry made it clear Washington was ready to step up its support for the opposition.
"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people seek and deserve, and that is what we will be discussing in Rome," Kerry said.
He said he wanted to hear from opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib about how best to end the violence in Syria, where the United Nations says at least 70,000 have died and hundreds of thousands have been uprooted in the two-year conflict.
"That may require us to change president Assad's current calculation. He needs to know he can't shoot his way out of this," Kerry said.
