Leaders uncertain over who launched Syria attack

Satirical artist Kaya Mar poses for photographs with his painting of G-20 leaders as he attends a protest organized by the Stop the War coalition against any U.S. military intervention in Syria, outside the U.S. embassy in London, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. Facing obstacles at home and abroad, President Barack Obama this week plans to urge reluctant world leaders to back an American-led strike against Syria even though the prospects for military action could depend on a fractured U.S. Congress. The uncertainty surrounding Syria will hang over the president's three-day overseas trip, which includes the G-20 summit in Russia after a stop in Sweden. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

World leaders are venting over Syria’s civil war but look no closer to agreeing on international military intervention to stop it.

A French official says leaders at a summit of the Group of 20 leading world economies in Russia agreed with President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande that chemical weapons had been used in an Aug. 21 attack in Syria, and condemned it.

But many leaders remain in doubt about whether Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime was behind the attack, or Syria’s rebels. The U.S. and France are preparing possible military action against Mr Assad, and are trying at the G-20 summit to get backing from other world powers.

The French official, speaking Friday in St. Petersburg, was not authorised to be publicly named according to presidential policy.