US warns Damascus as NATO mulls missiles for Turkey

BRUSSELS: NATO foreign ministers were set on Tuesday to approve Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to counter any threats from neighbouring Syria after the United States issued a blunt warning to Damascus against the use of chemical weapons.

Officials from the 28-member alliance meeting in Brussels have said that the US-made missiles, to be deployed along Turkey's border with Syria, would be for purely defensive purposes.

US President Barack Obama on Monday told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to use chemical weapons against his own people, in a new warning to Damascus as the conflict approaches the 21-month mark with more than 41,000 people killed.

"I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command, the world is watching, the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable," Obama said.

"If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on route for the NATO talks that chemical weapons were "a red line for the United States," adding that Washington was "certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur".

The Syrian government, which is fighting hard to prevent the capital Damascus from falling to rebel forces, on Monday repeated a pledge that it would never resort to chemical weapons.

But a US official told that Syria had begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make sarin, a deadly nerve agent, while CNN reported Damascus could use the gas in a limited artillery attack on advancing rebels.

Washington worries that battlefield advances by rebels could prompt Assad to use chemical arms, or that such stocks could become insecure or find their way into the hands of groups hostile to the United States and its allies.