Syria calls June 3 presidential election

DAMASCUS: Syria has announced it will hold a June 3 presidential election, expected to return Bashar al-Assad to office, as fresh claims emerged of his regime´s use of chemical weapons.

Syria´s first presidential election -- after constitutional amendments scrapped a referendum system -- is to go ahead despite violence which has killed 150,000 people since March 2011.Underlining the persistent violence, mortar fire killed two people near the parliament building shortly before the election date was announced.

Speaker Mohammad al-Lahham announced the date in parliament, saying Syrians living outside the country would vote on May 28 and candidates would be able to register from Tuesday until May 1.Voting would be "free and fair... and under full judicial supervision", he said.

However, the United Nations condemned the announcement, warning it would torpedo a political resolution of the conflict.

"Such elections are incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Geneva communique," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.

He was referring to an agreement on a transition to democracy as the basis for negotiations between the government and the opposition.

The calling of the election came just hours before the United States said that Assad´s regime had launched a chemical attack on an opposition village earlier this month.

"We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical, probably chlorine, in Syria this month, in the opposition-dominated village of Kafr Zita," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"We are examining allegations that the government was responsible."

Washington called for an investigation. The latest allegation comes as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and other experts work to remove the Assad regime´s chemical stockpiles.

The removal follows an agreement reached after deadly chemical attacks outside Damascus last August that the West blamed on Assad´s regime.

Also, French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday that his country had "information" but no proof that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad´s regime was still using chemical weapons.