TAMING THE MONSTER: Syria Government 'To Declare Chemical Weapons'
It comes as Britain, France and the US table a new UN resolution to make the proposal binding on Syria.
Earlier on Tuesday the Syrian regime accepted the Russian proposal, according to state television, but the claims are being treated with scepticism.
Announcing the resolution plan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the world needed to test if the Syrian arms handover was genuine and not just a delaying tactic against an international response to the use
of nerve gas against civilians in Damascus last month.
He said: "We need to know that there's a proper timetable for doing this, we need to know there'd be a proper process for doing it, and crucially there'd have to be consequences if it wasn't done."
A spokesman for Mr Cameron earlier pointed out that as recently as Monday, Syrian President Bashar al Assad was refusing to confirm that he holds stocks of chemical weapons.
Russia called an emergency closed door UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss the handover proposals.
But President Vladimir Putin insisted the handover of weapons would only work if the US rejected a use of force against Syria.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State John Kerry told the Armed Services Committee in Washington that Syria has some 1,000 tons of "numerous chemical agents".
He said the US was still awaiting a formal proposal on the handover of weapons, stressed America would not wait long and that any deal must be struck in a binding UN Security Council resolution.
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said the country will declare its chemical weapons arsenal and would sign up to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Russia floated the idea after Mr Kerry, in an apparently throwaway remark, said the only way for Syria to avoid attack was to hand over all of its chemical weapons within a week. Russia is understood to be against the idea of a UN resolution binding Syria to the handover.
President Barack Obama, who has pledged to delay a military strike if Syria's chemical weapons are put under international control, still plans to make the case for Congress to authorise military action as an option. Congressional aides say votes may not be cast in the Senate this week.
Iran said it supported the handover plan and offered to help the Syrian government put the weapons under international control. China has also said that it backs the plan.
But Bahrain has warned the proposal would not end the bloodshed in Syria's civil conflict, which according to the UN has left more than 100,000 dead since early 2011.
