Russia queries Syria chemical claim

Russia's foreign minister has said the evidence put forward by the United States of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently does not meet stringent criteria for reliability.

The Obama administration said this week that it will give lethal aid to Syrian rebels in light of evidence that President Bashar Assad's forces used chemical weapons in the country's civil war.

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that the material does not include guarantees that it meets the requirements of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

He said the organisation specifies that samples taken from blood, urine and clothing can be considered reliable evidence only if supervised by organisation experts from the time they are taken up to delivery to a laboratory.