President Barack Obama has said that Syria will not lead to a proxy war between the United States and Russia, but described Moscow’s military engagement in the war-torn country as a “recipe for disaster”.

"We're going to continue to have tensions. And we're going to continue to have differences," but "we're not going to make Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia," Obama told a press conference on Friday.

However, he said that Putin cannot "distinguish between” the Daesh Takfiri terrorists and what he called “a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr. Assad go."

"From their perspective, they're all terrorists, and that's a recipe for disaster," he noted.

Russia has been beefing up its military presence in Syria, deploying warplanes, tanks and personnel to an airfield in the western port city of Latakia.

On Wednesday, Russia started to launch coordinated airstrikes on the positions of militants in Syria. The move came shortly after members of the Russian upper house of the parliament, the Federation Council, authorized the operations in the country.

Moscow’s commitment to the Syrian government runs counter to current US policy, which calls for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Obama said Washington was willing to engage with Moscow, if Russia works “to bring about a political settlement" instead of doubling down on its military support to Assad.

"I said to Mr. Putin that I'd be prepared to work with him if he is willing to broker with his partners, Mr. Assad and Iran, a political transition," he told reporters.

Last year, US Congress approved a $500 million program to train and equip more than 5,000 “moderate” militants to fight the Daesh in Syria.

However, analysts contend that many of them could eventually find themselves on the side of the Takfiri terrorists fighting against the government of Assad.

Obama said the US would "continue to support" the so-called moderate rebels in Syria, claiming that only they "can help pick up the pieces and stitch together a cohesive, coherent country."

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. The United States and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - have been supporting the militants operating inside Syria since the beginning of the crisis.