US defence officials said an additional warship has been moved into the Mediterranean Sea as calls for military action against the Syrian regime grow following an alleged chemical attack.
The US Sixth Fleet has decided to keep the USS Mahan in the region instead of letting it return to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia.
Three other destroyers are currently deployed in the Mediterranean - the USS Gravely, USS Barry and USS Ramage.
Survivors of the alleged gas attack rest inside a Damascus mosque All four warships are equipped with several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles which would allow the Pentagon to act rapidly if a military strike was ordered against Syria.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel suggested commanders have prepared a range of "options" for President Barack Obama if he chose to launch a strike against Bashar al Assad's regime.
He said: "The president has asked the Defence Department for options. Like always, the Defence Department is prepared and has been prepared to provide all options for all contingencies to the president of the US."
Dead animals lie in the street in the suburb of Zamalka Mr Hagel said he expected US intelligence to "swiftly" assess whether the Syrian government did use chemical weapons in two Damascus suburbs.
Mr Obama last year threatened to punish Assad's regime if it resorted to using chemical weapons during the conflict, saying the use of weapons of mass destruction constituted a "red line" being crossed.
Russia on Friday joined calls for a swift probe into the alleged chemical weapon attack.
Syrian refugees in the Quru Gusik camp in Iraq Britain and France have pressed for a team of UN inspectors already in Syria to be granted immediate access to the sites of the gas attack that activists say killed more than 130 people.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday there was little chance the attack had been carried out by rebels.
He said: "The only possible explanation of what we have been able to see is that it was a chemical attack and clearly many, many hundreds of people have been killed, some of the estimates are well over 1,000.
"I know some people in the world would like to say this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria - I think the chances of that are vanishingly small."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent his disarmament chief to Damascus to press Assad's regime to agree to an investigation.
Immediate access would allow inspectors to collect blood and soil samples to detect what chemicals - if any - were used.
The Assad regime has denied it has used chemical weapons, calling the allegations "absolutely baseless".
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