"To date, the government of Syria has fully cooperated in supporting the work of the advance team and the OPCW-UN joint mission," said mission chief Sigfrid Kaag in Damascus on Monday.

Kaag said that "by joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Syrian government has indicated its commitment to the task" of destroying it arsenal.

A team of UN-OPCW inspectors arrived in Syria on October 1 to oversee the implementation of UN Security Council 2118, which orders the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons and production facilities by mid-2014.

"The timeframes are challenging given the goal of the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons program in the first half of 2014," Kaag said in a statement.

The Security Council passed its resolution after hundreds of people were killed in sarin gas attacks on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.

A US plan to bomb Syria over the attack which Syrian government said was carried out by militants as a false-flag operation, was averted by Russia’s mediation that offered putting Syria’s chemicals under international control.

SHI/SHI