DHAKA: French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault will present France’s evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria, when he meets parliamentary leaders on Monday.

The dossier is said to show that Syria has stockpiled more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents, including sarin, reports the BBC.

French president Francois Hollande, like US president Barack Obama, wants punitive military action against Syria.

But there is growing pressure for a parliamentary vote on the issue, to be in line with the US and also Britain.

The alleged chemical attack took place on 21 August in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The US says more than 1,400 people were killed, including 426 children.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is personally convinced that a chemical attack took place and that the Syrian government of president Bashar al-Assad was responsible.

There must be ‘a firm international response to deter any future use of such weapons’, he said at a news briefing in Brussels.

‘It would send, I would say, a dangerous signal to dictators all over the world if we stand idly by and don’t react.’

BDST: 1927 HRS, SEPT 02, 2013
RoR/GCP