Denmark to Help with Shipping of Syria Chemical Arms

Denmark said Friday it would provide transport and security for the international effort to destroy Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons, after receiving a request from the U.N.

"The U.N. has contacted Denmark about sending a personal protection team for the leaders of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) delegation," Denmark's development minister, Christian Friis Bach, told AFP.

"We have also received a request to contribute to the maritime transport capacity, which ... we also view very positively," he added.

"This is a solid contribution to the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria."

The government received the U.N. request on Wednesday, according to a foreign ministry spokesman.

Denmark's contribution will be announced after the OPCW -- which is currently inspecting chemical weapons' production and storage sites in Syria -- adopts a roadmap for their destruction on November 15.

Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2118 passed in September, Syria's entire chemical arsenal, estimated at about 1,000 tonnes, is to be destroyed by June 30.

Washington has contacted several of its allies, including Belgium and France, for possible help in destroying Syria's chemical arsenal, a Belgian foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Norway has ruled out accommodating a U.S. request to help destroy the arms on its soil, saying the schedule was too tight.