Security Council Permanent Members to Meet on Syria

Envoys from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- the permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council -- will meet Wednesday to discuss the situation in Syria, diplomats said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier that the failure to halt atrocities in the war-torn country had become a new stain on the reputation of the world body and the Security Council powers.

France, Britain and the United States on Tuesday pressed for a Council resolution that would impose tough consequences should Damascus fail to hand over control of its banned chemical weapons.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it would be "unacceptable" for the 15-nation Council to pass a text that puts the blame on President Bashar Assad for an August 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs.

A Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday was canceled at the last minute at Moscow's request.

France has indicated it is ready to modify, within limits, its draft resolution but intends to keep the military option on the table as a means of pressuring the Assad regime.

At Russia's urging, Damascus has said it wants to put its arsenal of chemical weapons under international supervision in compliance with the 1993 convention banning the weapons.

Russia has provided the United States with a plan for controlling the weapons, to be discussed Thursday in Geneva by the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers, according to a Russian government source.