Syria gives Russia 'new evidence' rebels behind chemical attack

MOSCOW: Russia said Wednesday the Syrian regime had handed over new evidence implicating rebels in a deadly poison gas attack, as divisions reemerged between Moscow and the West after a landmark deal to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons.

Despite a weekend agreement between the United States and Russia aimed at dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal by mid-2014, the two sides remained at loggerheads in their assessment of the August 21 attack outside Damascus which left hundreds of people dead.

While US President Barack Obama said it was "inconceivable" that anyone other than the Syrian regime could have carried out the attack, Russia slammed as "biased and one-sided" a UN report that the West says proves the regime's guilt.

Aake Sellstroem, who led the UN team that compiled the report told that the inspectors would be returning to Syria "soon" to investigate further allegations of chemical weapons use.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday after the first of two days of talks in Damascus that the Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in the attack that horrified the world.

"The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side. We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti and ITAR-TASS news agencies after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem late Tuesday.

He said Russia would "examine the Syrian materials implicating the rebels with the utmost seriousness".

To the fury of the West, Russia has repeatedly expressed suspicion that the chemical attack was a "provocation" staged by the rebels with the aim of attracting Western military intervention in the conflict.