U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the idea of placing Syrian chemical weapons under international control at last week's G20 summit in Saint Petersburg, Putin's spokesman said Tuesday.

"The issue was discussed," spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian agencies as saying in response to the question of who initiated the proposal that Syria hand over its chemical arsenal in order to avert a U.S. strike.

Britain would back any "credible" U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria's chemical weapons program, but it must contain the threat of force, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday.

"It certainly would need to be a chapter seven resolution to have any meaning and credibility on this subject," Hague said in Cape Town, referring to rules authorizing the Security Council to enforce a resolution with military action if necessary.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on Tuesday said Syria has "already agreed" to an initiative by Russia for Damascus to hand over its chemical weapons stocks to international control.

"Yesterday, we had a round of very fruitful negotiations with (Russian Foreign Minister) Sergei Lavrov and he came forward with an initiative on chemical weapons," Muallem said in Moscow after meeting the speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament in comments quoted by Russian news agencies translated from Arabic.

The European Union on Tuesday cautiously welcomed a Russian plan to head off military action against Syria by destroying the regime's chemical weapons, saying it was waiting to see details of the proposal.

The EU executive, the European Commission, also announced the immediate release of 58 million euros (77 million dollars) destined to help refugees from the Syrian conflict in Lebanon.

The Arab League will back a Russian plan to place Syria's chemical weapons under international supervision for eventual destruction, its secretary general said Tuesday.

Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Cairo the League will "soon issue a statement announcing its support officially" for the Russian plan.

Syria supports Russia's proposal for the U.N. atomic agency to assess the risks posed by any U.S.-led airstrikes hitting a small research reactor outside Damascus, Syria's ambassador to the IAEA said Tuesday.

"We join strongly the Russian Federation demand requesting analysis from the IAEA on the risk of such an attack on the facilities," Bassam al-Sabbagh told reporters.

France said Tuesday it would submit a resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling on Syria to put its chemical weapons beyond use or face military action.

The resolution, to be presented in New York later in the day, will also demand that the individuals responsible for an August 21 chemical attack on Damascus suburbs be put on trial at the International Criminal Court, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a press conference.

An Iranian opposition group said Tuesday that it feared seven Iranian exiles arrested in a camp in Iraq where 52 people died in recent violence were on the verge of being extradited to their country.

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (CNRI) claimed Iraqi soldiers launched the September 1 attack at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, but Iraqi officials said the violence was the result of infighting.

Moscow is currently in talks with Damascus to develop a "concrete plan" for the Syrian regime to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

"We (Russia) are currently working on preparing a workable, precise and concrete plan and for this there are literally right now, in these minutes, contacts with the Syrian side," Lavrov said at a news conference with his Libyan counterpart.

China on Tuesday backed a Russian plan to head off threatened punitive U.S. air strikes on Syria by destroying the regime's chemical weapons.

"We welcome and support the Russian side's suggestion," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing.