Russia, Syria clash with West on boosting chemical watchdog OPCW

In a bitter diplomatic battle, Russia, backed by Iran and Syria, today sought to head off a Western push to endow the world's global chemical watchdog with new powers to identify those behind toxic arms attacks.

Delegates from 143 countries gathered in The Hague for a special meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) called by Britain and other allies, including France and the United States.

It comes as the body is expected to unveil soon its report into an alleged sarin and chlorine gas attack in April in the Syrian town of Douma. Medics and rescuers say 40 people were killed, blaming the attack on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was expected to address the rare special session of the OPCW's top policy-making body later, as London seeks to overcome the lack of an effective way of holding perpetrators to account.

"We want to strengthen the Organisation entrusted with overseeing the ban on chemical weapons," the British delegation said in a tweet.

"We want to empower the @OPCW to identify those responsible for chemical weapons attacks." The talks come in the wake of the nerve agent attack in March on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury, which Britain and its allies have blamed on Russia.

There has been growing international concern about repeated allegations of the use of poison gases in the Iraq and Syria conflicts, as well as alarm at the 2017 assassination of the North Korean leader's half-brother in a rare nerve agent attack in Kuala Lumpur airport.

"If accountability is avoided the potential re-emergence and acceptance of chemicals as weapons of war and terror will not be deterred," outgoing OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu warned.

Speaking for the EU, Bulgarian delegate Judit Koromi said: "We firmly believe that it is the international community's task ... and responsibility to identify and hold accountable individuals, entities, groups or governments responsible for the use of chemical weapons."