Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rebuffed the Kremlin's demands for an apology and said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had snubbed a phone call from him after Tuesday's incident.

The downing of the plane on the Syrian border has raised fears it could fuel a wider geopolitical conflict, and highlighted the difficulty of forging consensus on Syria as French President Francois Hollande held talks with Putin in Moscow.

Hollande is trying to cobble together a broad coalition, including Russia, to crush the Islamic State (IS) group following the November 13 attacks in Paris.

While Russia has ruled out any military retaliation against NATO member Turkey, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave his ministers two days to work out "a system of response measures" in the economic and humanitarian spheres.