By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;has signaled to U.N. Security Council counterparts that it will&nbsp;likely&nbsp;allow humanitarian&nbsp;aid&nbsp;deliveries from&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;to about&nbsp;4 million people in northwestern&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;for six more months,&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;said.
Authorization by the 15-member council is needed because&nbsp;Syrian authorities did not agree to the humanitarian operation, which has been delivering&nbsp;aid&nbsp;including food, medicine and shelter to opposition-controlled areas of&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;since 2014.
The Security Council is due to vote on extending the measure on Monday, a day before the current approval is to expire. To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by&nbsp;Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States.
"We are still weighing pros and cons,"&nbsp;Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters, adding that the implementation of the current Security Council resolution - adopted in July - was "far from our expectations."
He said&nbsp;that&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;was consulting with&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;and that the final decision would be made by Moscow on Monday.
Diplomats&nbsp;said&nbsp;Security Council members informally agreed last week to the text giving the operation six more months, which was drafted and negotiated by Ireland and Norway before they finished their two-year terms on the council on Dec. 31.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report last month that the&nbsp;aid&nbsp;access from&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;was "a lifeline for millions of people" and the renewal of approval was critical, a "moral and humanitarian imperative."
Top U.N. officials, including U.N.&nbsp;aid&nbsp;chief Martin Griffiths, on Monday warned that ending the&nbsp;aid&nbsp;operation would be "catastrophic" for those who rely on it: "Most of them are women and children who need assistance just to survive at the peak of winter and amidst a serious cholera&nbsp;outbreak."
If&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;abstains in Monday's vote - allowing&nbsp;aid&nbsp;deliveries to&nbsp;continue&nbsp;- the council avoids the contention that has traditionally surrounded the issue. In July the council voted three times before the operation was extended - two days after the authorization had expired.
The Security Council initially authorized&nbsp;aid&nbsp;deliveries in 2014 into opposition-held areas of&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;from Iraq, Jordan and two points in&nbsp;Turkey. But&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;and China have whittled that down to just one Turkish border point.
Russia, which has backed&nbsp;Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that began in 2011, argues that the&nbsp;aid&nbsp;operation violates&nbsp;Syria's sovereignty. It says more&nbsp;aid&nbsp;should be delivered from inside the country, raising opposition fears that food and other&nbsp;aid&nbsp;would fall under government control.
Guterres said&nbsp;in his report to the council that&nbsp;aid&nbsp;deliveries from within&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;"remain unable to replace the size or scope of the massive United Nations cross-border operation."
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(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool)

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Russia signals aid to Syria out of Turkey likely to continue - diplomats