Syria’s president Bashar Assad says his government will abide by the UN resolution calling for the country’s chemical weapons programme to be dismantled and destroyed.

Syria has said it accepts Russia’s proposal to place its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent dismantling.

A possible diplomatic solution to avoid a US military strike has opened up as Syria swiftly welcomed a suggestion to turn over all of its chemical weapons for destruction under international control.

Russia says it will push Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control.

The US military stands ready to strike Syria at once if president Barack Obama gives the order, the country’s defence secretary Chuck Hagel has said.

Syria’s foreign minister says his country will defend itself using “all means available” in case of a US strike.

There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals have been used as weapons in at least four attacks in Syria’s civil war, a UN report said, but more evidence is needed to determine the precise chemical agents and who used them.

A doctor in an embattled Syrian town near the border with Lebanon says 300 seriously injured residents need to be evacuated for medical treatment.

The Syrian government has agreed in principle to take part in an international conference in Geneva next month aimed at ending the country’s civil war, its foreign minister said yesterday.

Iran and Syria condemned a US plan to help rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad and signalled that he intended to stay in power at least until the 2014 presidential election.

Syrian activists have claimed rebels shot down a government warplane over the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, the second time in a week that opposition fighters claimed to have brought down an aircraft in the escalating civil war.

Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus yesterday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital.

The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in the northern town of Idlib has been shot dead, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

The Gulf states are to quit the Arab League observer mission in Syria after President Bashar Assad rejected a plan to end the country’s bloodshed.

Syria has signed an Arab League agreement allowing Arab observers into the country, its Foreign Minister said.

THE UN has accused Syria of a series of crimes against humanity in its crackdown on anti-government protests.

The UN has accused Syria of a series of crimes against humanity in its crackdown on anti-government protests.

Jordan's King Abdullah has become the first Arab ruler to call for Syrian president Bashar Assad to step down.

Syria’s foreign minister has hit out at an Arab League vote to suspend his country’s membership, saying it was an illegitimate decision prompted by American incitement.

Syria's foreign minister has warned the international community not to recognise a new council formed by the opposition, saying it is “illegitimate”.

Syria saw a wave of violence and arrests today as the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Damascus to address issues including caring for the wounded and access to detainees during the government’s crackdown on a five-month-old uprising.

The streets of Hama were deserted today as it appeared to be under full Syrian government control after last week’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funnelled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq during the cross-border helicopter raid, according to a US anti-terror chief.

America was accused of “terrorism” today after its special forces raided alleged al-Qaida fighters sheltering inside the supposed safety of Syria.

Lebanon’s feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal today that ends the country’s long political stalemate, but also gives the militant Hezbollah group and allies the key power they sought.

France is cutting off talks with Syria until Damascus shows its willingness to let Lebanon elect a new president, Nicolas Sarkozy says.

THE BUSH administration was able to declare a clean sweep yesterday when Syria, the last Arab world holdout, said it would attend this week’s high-stakes Middle East peace conference.

A car bomb explosion killed six UN peacekeepers patrolling a southern Lebanon road in an attack that could have serious repercussions beyond Lebanon’s borders.

A car bomb explosion killed six UN peacekeepers patrolling a southern Lebanon road today in an attack that could have serious repercussions beyond Lebanon’s borders.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Syrian government officials today for talks criticised by the White House as undermining American efforts to isolate the hard-line Arab country.