BBC News with Marion Marshall.

The United States and Russia have agreed a plan to remove and destroy Syria's chemical weapons as soon and safely as possible. The US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said they wanted to reopen wider peace talks. Mr. Lavrov said the proposed deal didn't mention any potential use of force if Syria failed to comply. Our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins reports.

The US-Russia agreement allows President Assad just seven days to declare a complete list of Syria's entire chemical weapons stockpile. International inspectors are to be on the ground in Syria by November. All stockpiles are to be removed or destroyed by mid 2014. And there will be a new UN resolution to enforce all these although the two sides differ about what that could mean in practice.

President Obama has welcomed the deal agreed in Geneva, but has warned that if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act. In a statement, he said the threat of US military force that help create the opportunity to end the Syrian chemical weapons threat through diplomacy.

The commander, one of the Syria's main rebel armies, General Salim Idriss of the Free Syrian Army has said the deal would not resolve the crisis and would allow President Assad to escape being held accountable for the death of hundreds of civilians. The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen is in the Syrian capital Damascus.