Addressing world powers calling for military action against the Syrian government, Ban said on Wednesday that the US and its allies should give time to the UN team investigating the alleged chemical attack near Damascus to determine which side used the deadly weapon.
"We must pursue all avenues to get the parties to the negotiating table," Ban said.
He also called on UN Security Council, whose permanent members are divided over Syria, to unite and bring peace to the crisis-hit country.
"The body interested with maintaining international peace and security cannot be 'missing in action'," Ban said, adding, "The council must at last find the unity to act. It must use its authority for peace."
Meanwhile, UN-Arab League special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said any foreign military action in Syria needs UN Security Council authorization.
"I think international law is clear on this. International law says that military action must be taken after a decision by the Security Council. That is what international law says," he told a press conference in Geneva.
"I must say that I do know that President Obama and the American administration are not known to be trigger-happy. What they will decide I don't know. But certainly international law is very clear."
Hundreds of people were killed and scores of others were injured in a chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar on August 21.
The foreign-backed opposition has blamed the Syrian government for the deadly attack. Opposition sources say 1,300 people were killed in the poisonous gas attack.
The Damascus government, however, has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.
The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.
More than 100,000 people have died in the foreign-hatched civil war and millions have been displaced.
A very large number of the militants operating inside Syria are reportedly foreign nationals who resort to any act of terror to destabilize Syria which is considered a pillar of anti-Israeli resistance.
NTJ/HH