The Assad regime has given details of its chemical weapons programme to the world's chemical weapons watchdog.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body tasked with dismantling Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons, said that Syria had given an "initial declaration" outlining its programme.

It will not release the details of the declaration and is now seeking to verify what has been outlined. But Reuters reoprts that the information relates to 1,000 metric tonnes of toxins. "We have received part of the verification and we expect more" an OPCW spokesman is quoted as saying.

OPCW is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents as well as its production facilities.

Under a US/Russia agreement brokered last weekend, inspectors are due to be on the ground in Syria by November.

The chemical weapons watchdog postponed a meeting of its executive council, which was due to take place on Sunday, at which it was to discuss how to dismantle the country's chemical weapons programme.

The body said it would set another date for the meeting.

The Syrian government earlier said it will call for a ceasefire in the civil war there if peace talks are reconvened.

Syrian deputy prime minister Qadri Jamil says the conflict has reached a stalemate but he is also calling for an end to external intervention in the war.

Meanwhile the American Secretary of State John Kerry has urged the UN Security Council to agree a binding resolution on destroying Syrian chemical weapons. He says the UN report on the chemical attack last month in Damascus is definitive proof that the Syrian government were responsible.

Earlier Russia said it still was not clear who was behind the attack which killed hundreds.

Speaking last week, the UN Security-General Bank Ki-Moon said the use of chemical weapons in Syria was clearly against international law.

Image: ©OPCW