08:18
Tieng Anh Vui
Russia has asked Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpile under "international control" in a bid to avoid US military strikes, and then have them destroyed.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the offer was made during talks with his Syrian counterpart, and he hoped for a quick response from Damascus.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has again denied using chemical weapons.
The US is threatening strikes, accusing the Assad regime of war crimes.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Europe to garner support for the military action, has once again warned that taking no action is riskier than launching strikes.
When asked at a news conference whether there was anything Mr Assad could do to avoid military action, Mr Kerry replied that he could hand over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons within the next week.
US officials later clarified that Mr Kerry was making a "rhetorical argument" rather than a serious offer.
However, Mr Lavrov later called on Syria to "place the chemical weapons under international control and then have them destroyed".
He said the offer had been made to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during talks in Moscow.
Mr Lavrov said he did not know whether Damascus would agree, but Russia was hoping for a positive response.
The US accuses Mr Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-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.
Đăng ký: Tieng Anh Vui
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