DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday struck a more conciliatory tone ahead of this week’s G-20 summit, saying Moscow would take ‘decisive’ action if the West proves who used chemical weapons in Syria.

Putin’s comments came as lawmakers in the United States began rallying behind president Barack Obama’s plan to launch military strikes against Syria over a suspected poison gas attack outside Damascus that killed hundreds.

And as Obama sought to cobble together an international coalition to back his plans for military intervention, France was on Wednesday to hold an emergency parliamentary debate on the Syrian crisis.

Putin, in an interview apparently aimed at presenting a more pragmatic face to the world ahead of the G-20 summit in St Petersburg, said he did not exclude Russia agreeing to US-led military strikes if it can be proven Syria’s regime carried out the August 21 attack.

However, he told state-run Channel One television, the West still needs to put forward watertight proof of the circumstances of the attack, which some Russian officials have blamed on rebels, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1720 HRS, SEPT 04, 2013
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