U.S. Urges Syria to Unveil Chemical Weapons Stockpile

Washington called Thursday on the Syrian regime to quickly declare the scope and size of its chemical weapons stockpile as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva for high-stakes talks.

A senior U.S. official said the aim for the talks with Russia was "to see if in fact we can test whether there is a credible and authentic way forward here, that the Russians mean what they say... and probably more importantly that Assad means what he says."

Backed by a large team of U.S. experts, Kerry was to hold talks later in the day with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Moscow's proposal to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons.

"We will talk with the Russians about the scope of the problem. Talk with the Russians about the different modalities for the destruction of the weapons, production facilities, precursor facilities," the official told reporters accompanying Kerry to the Swiss city.

"It's doable, but difficult."