U.N. inspectors said Monday there is "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people. 
 
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, second right, pose for the media prior to a meeting on Syria at the... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo released by the United Nations shows professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, listen to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speak at a news conference after a meeting on Syria, at the... (Associated Press) 
 
 French President Francois Hollande, left, welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for a meeting on Syria at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pose in the lobby of the Elysee... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo released by the United Nations shows professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius pose upon their arrival at the Elysse... (Associated Press) 
 
 French President Francois Hollande, left, gestures as he talks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) 
 
 The inspectors said "the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used ... in the Ghouta area of Damascus" on Aug. 21. The report mentioned the areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka. 
 
 "The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic ... against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the inspectors said on the first page of their report to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. 
 
 Ban was scheduled to present the report to the U.N. Security Council later Monday morning. The Associated Press saw the first page of the report. 
 
 The Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as a U.N. chemical weapons team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs. 
 
 The inspectors were mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones _ not on who was responsible. 
 
 The rebels and their Western and Arab supporters blame President Bashar Assad's regime for the attack in the rebel-controlled area of Ghouta. The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. 
 
 Chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom handed over the report to the secretary-general on Sunday amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at getting Syria to put its just-acknowledged stockpile of chemical weapons and chemical precursors under international control for destruction. 
 
 In Geneva, the chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel on Monday said it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically escalating the stakes after diplomatic breakthroughs that saw the Syrian government agree to dismantle its chemical weapons program. 
 
 Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the Geneva-based U.N. panel he heads has not pinpointed the chemical used in the attacks and is awaiting evidence from a separate team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors expected to be made public later Monday. 
 
 That report is expected to add momentum to a deal to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons program. 
 
 Pinheiro also said the panel believes Assad's government has been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while rebel groups have perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity "because there is not a clear chain of command." 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ended a weeklong diplomacy tour in Paris on Monday. Just a week ago, he was there lobbying for global support for military strikes against Assad, but after a breakthrough with Russia, Kerry's latest visit was intended to secure support from allies for the deal to secure and then eradicate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. 
 
 Kerry and his French and British counterparts laid out a two-pronged approach in Syria, calling for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition. 
 
 France and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds remained on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution reflecting that in coming days. 
 
 "If Assad fails to comply ... we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be consequences," Secretary of State John Kerry said. 
 
 But Russia's foreign minister said ongoing attempts to threaten the use of force against Syria would provoke the opposition and disrupt a chance for negotiations. 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy, responded to comments by French President Francois Hollande that the "military option" against Syria was not off the table. 
 
 Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition _ the main umbrella opposition group _ for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, French officials said. 
 
 Bolstering the Western-backed SNC is just as crucial to Syria's future as Assad's agreement to give up chemical arms, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. 
 
 "He must understand that there is no military victory, no possible military victory for him," Fabius said. He acknowledged that broad popular support for the rebels has been hampered by fears that Islamic militants are now playing a major role in the 2 1/2-year-old uprising. 
 
 In briefing the allies, Kerry was pressing for support for the ambitious agreement that averted threatened U.S. military strikes. It calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014. 
 
 Those who blame Assad for the chemical attack and supported military strikes say it is up to Assad to uphold his end of any deal. 
 
 "It is extremely important that there are no evasions, that there is no cat and mouse game going on over these weapons," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. 
 
 Kerry acknowledged the chemical arms deal would have little immediate effect on the bloodshed in Syria, which has killed more than 100,000 people, but he said full compliance was a key first step. 
 
 In Geneva, Pinheiro said the "vast majority" of casualties in Syria's civil war came from conventional weapons like guns and mortars. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers John Heilprin in Geneva and Matthew Lee in Paris contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights Syria findings "beyond doubt and beyond the pale," Ban says 
 
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 U.N. weapons inspectors returned "overwhelming and indisputable" evidence of the use of nerve gas in Syria, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, calling the findings "beyond doubt and beyond the pale." 
 
 The inspectors' 38-page report was released after Ban briefed Security Council members on its contents. The team found what it called "clear and convincing evidence" that the nerve agent sarin was delivered by surface-to-surface rockets "on a relatively large scale" in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on August 21. 
 
 "It is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988, and the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century," Ban said. "The international community has a responsibility to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare," he said. 
 
 Ban called the attack "a war crime" and a violation of treaties banning the use of chemical weapons that date back to 1925. But the inspectors' mandate did not include assigning blame for the attack, and Ban would not speculate on who launched the attack. 
 
 The team did identify two types or rockets it said were used to deliver the gas and their trajectories, and international observers have said those weapons are not known to be in the hands of rebels battling the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 
 
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 Australian U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who is currently serving as president of the Security Council, said the report bolsters his country's stance. It "confirms, in our view, that there is no remaining doubt that it was the regime that used chemical weapons." 
 
 And Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador, said a preliminary review of the report points toward forces loyal to al-Assad. 
 
 "The regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin," Power said. "It defies logic" to think members of the opposition would have infiltrated a regime-controlled area to fire on opposition-controlled areas. 
 
 Britain, France, and NATO have also said al-Assad's regime was behind the attack. But Russia is Syria's leading ally, and Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin maintained Moscow's stance that Syrian rebels might be to blame. 
 
 Such suggestions "cannot be simply shrugged off," Churkin said, and statements insisting that the opposition could not have launched the attack "are not as scientific and grounded in reality as the actual situation could be." He questioned why rebel forces didn't report major losses in the August 21 chemical attack, which the United States says may have killed more than 1,400, including hundreds of civilians. 
 
 Samples examined 
 
 The August 21 attack led to U.S. calls for military action against Syria, which denies its forces unleashed chemical weapons and blamed rebel fighters for the deaths. Syria has since agreed to join the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and hand over its chemical arsenal to international inspectors, with the United States and Russia laying out a fast-paced framework for Damascus to follow. 
 
 Monday's report presents a stark picture of the damage that can be inflicted by a nerve agent like sarin, one of three types of poison gas Syria is believed to have stockpiled 
 
 "Survivors reported that following an attack with shelling, they quickly experienced a range of symptoms, including shortness of breath, disorientation, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and general weakness," Ban said. "Many eventually lost consciousness. First responders described seeing a large number of individuals lying on the ground, many of them dead or unconscious." 
 
 The weather made things worse. Falling temperatures at the time of the attack meant the downward movement of air, allowing the gas "to easily penetrate the basements and lower levels of buildings and other structures where many people were seeking shelter," Ban said. 
 
 Inspectors interviewed survivors and first responders, collected hair, urine and blood samples and took soil and environmental samples from the sites where the rockets fell. The secretary-general said the team "adhered to the most stringent protocols available for such an investigation, including to ensure the chain of custody for all samples." 
 
 More than 100,000 people had already been killed in Syria before August 21, according to the United Nations. Another 2 million have fled the country, most of them taking refuge in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. 
 
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 It was not immediately clear how the report would affect events on the ground. The opposition Syrian National Coalition said the findings "demand a unified and decisive response by the international community." 
 
 "If the world does not act now, this war will continue, and thousands more will die," Najib Ghadbian, the coalition's representative to the United Nations, said in a written statement. "The people of Syria look to the U.N. Security Council to do everything in its power to stop this conflict and hold the Syrian regime responsible for its criminal actions." 
 
 In Washington, the White House announced that President Barack Obama would waive restrictions on exporting chemical protective gear to provide that equipment to the opposition and train "select, vetted members" in its use. American equipment will also be provided to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons , the international body that monitors compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. It will be OPCW inspectors who are likely to carry out Syria's promised disarmament. 
 
 Also Monday, Turkish fighter jets downed a Syrian helicopter near the border between the two countries Monday, Turkey's semiofficial Anatolia News Agency reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. Syria's state news agency SANA said the helicopter was watching for "terrorists" crossing the border and erroneously strayed into Turkish airspace, but was on its way back across the border when shot down. 
 
 Russia slams U.S. remarks on agreement 
 
 Even as the world awaited the U.N. inspectors' report Monday, Russia openly bickered with the United States about the agreement they struck in Geneva over the weekend. 
 
 The framework they laid out calls for a U.N. resolution demanding that Syria's chemical weapons be placed under international control. Security Council powers are now trying to put that framework into a resolution. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "and his Western allies" of misunderstanding the deal, according to Russia's state-run Itar-Tass news agency. 
 
 Lavrov said the deal does not say the U.N. resolution will be under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, which potentially authorizes the use of force -- and comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the any resolution will need to include the possibility of force "show unwillingness to read the document" that Russia and the United States endorsed. 
 
 The agreement states that if there is noncompliance "or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria, the U.N. Security Council should impose measures under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter." But it does not specifically state that the resolution being sought now will be under that chapter. 
 
 Russia holds veto power on the council. But Kerry told reporters Monday that "Should diplomacy fail, the military option is still on the table." 
 
 "If the Assad regime believes that this is not enforceable, then they will play games," he said. 
 
 According to the plan, Syria must submit a full list of its chemical weapons stockpile within a week. International inspectors must be on the ground in the country by November, and all production equipment must be destroyed by the end of November. ||||| The head of a U.N. commission investigating war crimes in Syria says it investigating who was responsible for 14 suspected chemical weapon attacks. 
 
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, second right, pose for the media prior to a meeting on Syria at the... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, listen to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speak at a news conference after a meeting on Syria, at the... (Associated Press) 
 
 French President Francois Hollande, left, welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for a meeting on Syria at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pose in the lobby of the Elysee... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius pose upon their arrival at the Elysse... (Associated Press) 
 
 French President Francois Hollande, left, gestures as he talks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) 
 
 Commission chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro says the Geneva-based U.N. probe has not yet determined the exact materials used but is awaiting evidence from a separate team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors expected to be made public later Monday. 
 
 He emphasizes the "vast majority" of casualties in Syria's civil wars is from conventional weapons like guns and mortars. 
 
 Pinheiro told reporters Monday the commission believes that President Bashar Assad's government has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, while it believes that rebel groups have perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity "because there is not a clear chain of command." 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 The U.S. and its closest allies laid out a two-pronged approach in Syria on Monday, calling for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the country's chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition. 
 
 The top diplomats from the United States, France and Britain stood side by side Monday to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to uphold his end of any deal on securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons. France and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds remains on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution reflecting that. 
 
 The United Nations Security Council is set in coming days to take up the resolution laying out plans for the agreement brokered by the United States and Russia. 
 
 "If Assad fails to comply ... we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be consequences," Secretary of State John Kerry said ahead of meetings in Paris with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two of the strongest proponents for military action against Assad. 
 
 Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition _ the main umbrella opposition group _ for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, French officials said. 
 
 Bolstering the Western-backed SNC is just as crucial to Syria's future as Assad's agreement to give up chemical arms, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. 
 
 "He must understand that there is no military victory, no possible military victory for him," Fabius said. He acknowledged that broad popular support for the rebels has been hampered by fears that Islamic militants are now playing a major role in the 2 1/2-year-old uprising. 
 
 In briefing the allies, Kerry was pressing for support for the ambitious agreement that averted threatened U.S. military strikes. It calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014. 
 
 Those who blame Assad for the chemical attack and supported military strikes say it is up to Assad to uphold his end of any deal. 
 
 "It is extremely important that there are no evasions, that there is no cat and mouse game going on over these weapons," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. 
 
 The United Nations is set to take up a resolution would lay out the specific terms of the agreement, detailing how Syria can secure and destroy its stockpile. The content of that was under discussion Monday. 
 
 Kerry acknowledged the chemical arms deal would have little immediate effect on the bloodshed in Syria, which has killed more than 100,000 people, but he said full compliance was a key first step. 
 
 "This deprives Assad of a weapon," Kerry said. "If you can translate this into that kind of negotiated settlement you can actually win peace." 
 
 Kerry's journey began a week ago in Paris. At that time he was trying to build support for military strikes on Assad. 
 
 After an extraordinary series of events and marathon negotiating sessions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kerry is now back in Paris building support for diplomatic initiatives to strip Assad of his chemical weapons, boost support for the opposition and push a political solution to end the conflict. The trip was wrapping up Monday with a private meeting with Kerry's Turkish counterpart and lunch with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. 
 
 The Aug. 21 attack unfolded as a U.N. chemical weapons team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs afflicted by the poison gas. The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector turned over his team's report on Sunday, and the Security Council is due to take it up in a closed session Monday. 
 
 The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. The inspection team led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom was mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used and which ones they were, but not on who was responsible.
– There's "clear and convincing evidence" that surface-to-air rockets loaded with sarin gas rained down on the Ghouta area of Damascus last month, UN weapons inspectors announced today. The panel concluded that chemical weapons have been used "against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale." The inspectors were only tasked with determining whether chemical weapons had been fired, not who fired them, the AP explains; though CNN reports that the report will cover "signs of culpability." Earlier today, a separate UN commission said it was investigating reports of 14 chemical attacks, but that it had already determined that both sides had committed war crimes, with or without chemicals. The Assad regime has committed both war crimes and crimes against humanity, the commission determined. The rebels hadn't committed crimes against humanity only "because there is not a clear chain of command." The reports follow Syria's admission that it has chemical weapons, as part of a deal to disarm. Some recent fallout of that deal: The Assad government called the disarmament deal a "victory," and the rebels seem to agree, the New York Times reports. They expect Assad to break his word, and to step up his conventional weapons offensives. Indeed, the violence escalated appreciably last week, the Washington Post points out, with some towns facing their first airstrikes in weeks, and more than 1,000 killed. Now that the threat from the US has evaporated, "the regime has regrouped and is back on the offensive with a vengeance," one expert on the region says. Some rebels said arms shipments from foreign backers had increased, but complained that they were light weapons, and speculated that their backers only want to see the war drag on. "We won't get advanced weapons," a spokesman for a brigade in Aleppo says, "Because that would mean we would achieve victories."