Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Friday that Damascus would agree that inspections of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria be conducted by Russian experts.

"If there is a need to investigate in a field, we'd offer that to be done by the Russian experts," the visiting Syrian official told reporters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that the UN team was ready to be deployed in 24-48 hours to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Zoubi said the chemical shelling of in the town of Khan al-Asal near Aleppo was fired by terrorists based near the Turkish border and the ammunition could be shipped from Turkey.

"It was done by the groups, including al-Qaida, which have threatened to use chemical weapons against Syria. They have implemented their threat near Aleppo and resulted in casualties," Zoubi said, citing 14 people killed and 50 wounded in that attack.

He noted that Syrian troops had neither chemical nor other weapons of mass destruction and blamed the United States for groundless allegations.

The White House said the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in its conflict with the opposition rebels.

In a letter to the Congress Thursday, the White House said: "The U.S. intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent Sarin." Endi

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