Putin demands proof of Assad attack to back strikes on Syria

Says if we have objective, precise evidence about who carried out this crime, then there will be a reaction

Russia will only consider supporting a United Nations resolution authorising military strikes against the Syrian government if there's conclusive proof it used chemical weapons, President Vladimir Putin said.

"If we have objective, precise evidence about who carried out this crime, then there will be a reaction," Putin said in an interview with the Associated Press and Russian state television broadcaster Channel One, a transcript of which was posted on the Kremlin website on Wednesday. Any information showing that the Syrian army was behind the attack should be submitted to the UN Security Council, he said.

Putin said last week that it would have been "utter nonsense" for President Bashar Al-Assad's forces to carry out the assault on the day a team of UN inspectors arrived in Damascus and his troops were making military progress against the rebels. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said there are "multiple indications" that Syrian insurgents staged the attack to provoke a US-led intervention.