Syria: New Evidence 'Implicates Rebels'

Syria has handed Russia new materials which it claims implicate rebels in a chemical attack in Damascus, says a Russian minister.

"The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

"We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack."

Speaking to Russia's state news agency RIA, Mr Ryabkov also said his country had serious reservations about the United Nations report into the August 21 attack.

"We are disappointed, to put it mildly, about the approach taken by the UN secretariat and the UN inspectors, who prepared the report selectively and incompletely.

"Without receiving a full picture of what is happening here, it is impossible to call the nature of the conclusions reached by the UN experts ... anything but politicised, preconceived and one-sided," he said.

Mr Ryabkov was talking after meeting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Damascus.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the report's findings were "indisputable"

The UN report into the attack, which was published earlier this week, said chemical weapons had been used on a "relatively large scale".

It did not lay any blame for the atrocity, but the US, France and the UK all believe that it shows the Syrian regime was responsible.

Rockets tested at the attack site in Damascus were found to contain sarin, while the area in which they landed was contaminated with the deadly gas.

Blood and urine samples taken from patients injured in the attack tested positive for the nerve agent, while survivors said they had experienced symptoms including loss of consciousness, shortness of breath and blurred vision, all of which are consistent with intoxication.

Photographs taken by the inspectors also appeared to show possible Cyrillic, or Russian, engravings on one of the rocket casings.

Speaking at the publication of the report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it gave "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used and described the incident as a "war crime".

The US believes more than 1,400 people were killed in the attack but some other estimates are lower. The Syrian regime maintains that rebel forces were to blame.

Russia, a close ally of Syria's, has strongly opposed threatened US air strikes against the Assad regime.

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