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Tieng Anh Vui
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told a US broadcaster there is "no evidence" that his government had used chemical weapons.
In the interview with PBS, to be aired on Monday, he also suggested his allies would retaliate if the West attacked.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has been lobbying hard for military action against Mr Assad during talks with EU and Arab foreign ministers in Europe.
US Congress is due to debate whether to authorise intervention in Syria.
Lawmakers will return from their summer recess on Monday to start discussing President Barack Obama's resolution to launch a "limited, narrow" strike.
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The next few days will see Mr Obama stripped, all the flaws of his presidency on display, all the strengths of his personality strained to their limit”
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Both the Senate and House of Representatives could vote on the issue as early as Wednesday.
The US accuses Mr Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a sarin gas attack on 21 August on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
Mr Assad's government blames the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow him in the country's two-and-a-half-year civil war, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.
Meanwhile there are reports that rebel forces have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maaloula, north of Damascus.
'Common-sense test'
In his interview with PBS, the Syrian president said it was up to the US to prove that his forces were behind the Damascus attack.
"There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people," he told the network.
US Secretary of State John Kerry: "There is no military solution... but to enforce the standard with respect to the use of chemical weapons"
Mr Assad would neither confirm nor deny that his government kept chemical weapons, but said that if they existed, they were "in centralised control".
Mr Assad also reportedly "suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made", PBS said.
Syria's allies include China and Russia, as well as Iran and the militant Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
The White House has admitted it has no "irrefutable" evidence of Mr Assad's involvement in the August attack, but said a "strong common-sense test irrespective of the intelligence" suggested his government was responsible.
"We've seen the video proof of the outcome of those attacks," White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough said on Sunday.
"Now do we have a picture or do we have irrefutable beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence? This is not a court of law and intelligence does not work that way."
Mr Kerry also dismissed President Assad's comments, saying that "the evidence speaks for itself".
"Assad's deplorable use of chemical weapons crosses an international, global red line," he said in Paris after meeting Arab League foreign ministers.
Mr Kerry will meet UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in London on Monday morning, before returning to the US in the afternoon.
The British parliament has already voted against the UK joining any US-led military intervention in Syria.
But Mr Hague has reiterated his support for Washington's stance.
"I do believe very strongly the world must stand up to the use of chemical weapons and there is a debate now taking place in the US Congress and since our Parliament has spoken," he told the BBC.
No easy task
Mr Obama cleared his schedule this week to focus all his attention on building support for the Syrian intervention.
He will also seek public support in a White House address on Tuesday. He has acknowledged he faces a "heavy lift" to win congressional backing.
Syria's chemical weapons
- The CIA believes Syria has had a chemical weapons programme "for years and already has a stockpile of CW agents which can be delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets"
- Syria is believed to possess mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent
- The CIA also believes that Syria has attempted to develop more toxic and more persistent nerve agents, such as VX gas
- A report citing Turkish, Arab and Western intelligence agencies put Syria's stockpile at approximately 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, stored in 50 towns and cities
- Syria has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) or ratified the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
Sources: CSIS, RUSI
- Syria chemical attacks: What we know
- Syria's chemical weapons stockpile
- Q&A: Threatened strike on Syria
- Syria crisis: Western military options
- Syria's options in case of US strike
White House officials have been giving daily classified briefings to congressional members.
A poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than one-third of Congress members were undecided - and a majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the president.
Many remain concerned that military action could draw the US into a prolonged war and spark broader hostilities in the region.
Outside the US, France supports military intervention but it wants to wait for a report by UN weapons experts before taking action.
Russia and China, which have refused to agree to a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any military action without the UN would be illegal.
As international wrangling continues, Islamist militants from the Nusra Front and other rebels appear to have taken control of most of Maaloula, an ancient Christian village about 55km (34 miles) north of Damascus.
Heavy fighting is said to be continuing between the rebels and government troops, which have surrounded the village.
There are fears for Maaloula's heritage, with reports that militant Islamist rebels have attacked churches, the BBC's Jim Muir, in neighbouring Lebanon, reports.
But opposition leaders have blamed pro-regime militias for the alleged destruction, accusing the government of terrorising minorities while trying to pose as heir protectors, our correspondent says.
Đăng ký: Tieng Anh Vui
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