World powers - including Russia - have urged Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with U.N. chemical weapons inspectors.

The inspectors are already in Damascus to pursue earlier allegations. Indeed they arrived in Damascus last Wednesday when the Syrian government allegedly launched a chemical attacks on the population in Eastern Ghouta, east of the capital.

Russia said the rebels were impeding an inquiry and that Assad would have no interest in using poison gas for fear of foreign intervention.

Information Minister Zoabi had said Syria and the U.N. had previously agreed on inspections of certain sites around Syria from before Wednesday's allegations and added they will not allow any "inspection that will prejudice national sovereignty".

The minister said Syria would cooperate "significantly and transparently" with prior agreed inspection sites. But he suggested that U.N. inspectors would not be allowed to visit the site of Wednesday's attack.

Meanwhile Reuters today reported that opposition sources had said four hundred metric tons of arms had been sent into Syria from Turkey - one of the single biggest to reach rebel brigades - to boost insurgent capabilities against Syrian government forces following the alleged chemical strike.

The U.N. says more than 100,000 people have been killed during the Syrian conflict.