Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Russian television on Thursday that Syria would place its chemical weapons under international control but emphasized the move was prompted by Moscow, not US threats of military action.

"Syria is handing over chemical weapons under international control because of Russia," Assad told Rossiya 24 state news channel in an interview with its correspondent in Damascus.

"US threats have not affected the decision to hand over chemical arms," Assad was also quoted as saying in a caption on the channel's breaking news ticker.

Assad added in the interview that his country planned to file the relevant documents to the United Nations to sign an agreement on chemical arms.

Rossiya 24 did not give any further details of the content of the interview, which it said would be broadcast in full "soon".

In a separate development, the CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian rebels for several weeks, following US President Barack Obama's decision to arm the rebels.

The intelligence agency has also arranged for the Syrian opposition to receive anti-tank weaponry such as rocket-propelled grenades through a third party, presumably one of the Gulf countries that has been arming the rebels, a senior US intelligence official and two former intelligence officials said on Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified program publicly.

The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal first reported the aid.

AFP-AP

(China Daily 09/13/2013 page12)