Syria has begun supplying details of its chemical arsenal, the world's chemical weapons watchdog said today, as rebels agreed a truce with jihadists in a key border town.
A senior Syrian official, meanwhile, said Damascus wanted a ceasefire in the 30-month war, which has reportedly killed more than 110,000 people and forced more than two million to flee.
Hours before a deadline for President Bashar al-Assad's regime to provide details on its arsenal, the Hague-based group tasked with dismantling the arms said it has received an initial report.
"The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has received an initial disclosure from the Syrian government of its chemical weapons programme," an OPCW statement said.
Its Technical Secretariat is now examining the details, it said. A United Nations diplomat said the OPCW had received the Syrian declaration yesterday. "It is quite lengthy," he said.
The organisation has postponed a meeting of its Executive Council set for Sunday that had been due to discuss how to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons programme.
Damascus had until Saturday to supply details of its arsenal, in line with a US-Russian plan that helped prevent military action on regime targets following a chemical attack last month that killed hundreds of people.
The plan stipulates that Assad's regime hand over its chemical weapons and facilities, which would be destroyed by mid-2014.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov spoke on the telephone today about a "strong" UN Security Council resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons.
"We talked about the cooperation which we both agreed to continue to provide, moving not only towards the adoption of the OPCW rules and regulations, but also a resolution that is firm and strong within the United Nations," Kerry said.
"We will continue to work on that," he added.
Yesterday, Kerry said the Security Council must be prepared to agree to a binding resolution next week.
The five permanent members of the panel - the US, China, Russia, France and Britain - have been wrangling over the text of the resolution since Monday in an effort to find common ground. Russia, a key ally of Damascus, opposes all references to a possible use of force.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Northern Storm brigade, which is loyal to Free Syrian Army rebels and was based in Azaz, has agreed to a truce with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which fought fiercely for the town of Azaz on the Turkish border.
