PARIS — The new U.N. special envoy to Syria admitted on Sunday that he faces a difficult job trying to broker peace in Syria and said his first task is overcoming divisions within the Security Council that stymied the efforts of his predecessor.

Lakhdar Brahimi, who was named Friday to replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria, said getting the Security Council to speak "with a unified voice" is critical to his mission's success, but that he has no concrete ideas on how to achieve that. The former Algerian foreign minister and longtime U.N. diplomat spoke during an interview with The Associated Press at his home in Paris on Sunday.

Russia and China have used their veto power at the Security Council to block strong Western- and Arab-backed action against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.