Syrian state media says the government has reached an agreement with the United Nations to allow a UN team of experts to visit the site of last week's alleged chemical weapons attack.
State TV also said in a statement Sunday that the two sides are working to set the date and time of the visit to the agreed-upon locations outside Damascus purportedly hit by chemical agents on Aug. 22.
Accounts of the death toll vary, but a statement from Doctors Without Borders said 355 died in the attack.
A senior White House official said Sunday there is "very little doubt" that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians last week, but added that President Barack Obama had not yet decided how to respond.
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi warned that any U.S. intervention in Syria will create very serious fallout in the turbulent Middle East. (Khaled al-Hariri/Reuters) Obama and top advisers are hashing out options for responding to the reported use of chemical weapons in Syria amid what Britain called "increasing signs" that the Syrian government was responsible for Wednesday's nerve gas attack on civilians in a rebel-dominated area.
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi, in remarks released by the official news agency SANA late on Saturday night, said that any U.S.-led military action would be "no picnic".
"U.S. military intervention will create a very serious fallout and a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East," Zoabi said.
Also Sunday, French President Francois Hollande said signs suggest that Assad's regime was behind the purported chemical weapons attack. In a statement issued by his office, he said that France had "a body of evidence" that the attack involved chemical weapons. The statement didn't elaborate.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has accused the insurgents of firing the chemical weapons "as a last resort" to try to provoke foreign intervention on their side.
He also suggested that UN inspectors would not be allowed to visit the site of the alleged nerve gas attack as it was not part of a previously agreed list of locations where opposition activists say government forces used chemical weapons. Syrian authorities have denied any use of poison gas in the conflict.
Zoabi said Damascus would cooperate "significantly and transparently" with UN investigations but not allow any "inspection that will prejudice national sovereignty".
Iran, Assad's most powerful Middle East ally, warned the United States against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying this would have "severe consequences."
"America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria's red line will have severe consequences for the White House," Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying.
He was responding to weekend statements by Western officials regarding the possibility of military intervention in Syria.
The leader of an al-Qaeda linked militia fighting to overthrow the Syrian government has vowed to revenge against the Assad regime for the reported chemical attack.
Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani's comments came in an audio recording posted Sunday on a militant website that usually carries al-Qaida and similar groups' statements. The authenticity of the claim could not be immediately verified.
"The revenge for the blood of your children is a debt to be paid back," al-Golani said, addressing the families of children killed in the alleged chemical attack. "The revenge for the blood of your children is a debt to be paid back ... 1,000 rockets will be fired at them in revenge."
Al-Golani said he plans to target Shia Muslim villages. Assad's regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
Syrian opposition reports that between 500 and well over 1,000 civilians were killed on Wednesday by gas in munitions fired by pro-government forces, and video footage of victims' bodies, have stoked Western demands for a robust response after two years of international inaction on Syria's conflict.
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