Syria denies possessing chemical weapons

SYRIAN Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara has said his government is willing to sign a treaty making the entire Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

In an Australian TV interview, he denied US allegations that Syria had chemical weapons or had allowed Iraq to hide banned weapons on its soil.

"The Syrian government is ready to sign a treaty under UN supervision to make the whole Middle East a zone free from all mass destruction weapons, nuclear, chemical and biological," he told SBS in Damascus.