About 100 anti-war protesters and some 50 supporters of the Syrian opposition faced off outside the White House Saturday as President Barack Obama weighed a strike against the Damascus regime.

Police on horseback intervened to separate the two groups who for several minutes appeared on the verge of coming to blows.

Dozens of U.S. lawmakers are calling on President Barack Obama to consult with Congress and gain its approval before intervening militarily in Syria.

The United States is poised to launch a military strike on Syria in coming days after determining that President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons during an attack outside Damascus last week which killed hundreds of civilians.

The United States Tuesday pledged to release its intelligence findings into the Syria chemical attack this week, but said it was "preposterous" that anybody would blame anyone other than the Assad regime.

Underlining signals that an expected U.S. military action would be of limited scope, the White House said it was not seeking to bring about "regime change" in Syria and refused to say whether it would seek a U.N. mandate to strike.

President Barack Obama and his family welcomed a playful new addition to the White House on Monday -- a dog called Sunny.

The black Portuguese Water Dog joins the first family's other four-legged friend of the same breed, Bo.

President Barack Obama was back home at the White House late Sunday, ending his eight-day summer vacation at exclusive Martha's Vineyard off the U.S. east coast.

The president, his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia left their rental home on the island under steady rain and took a helicopter to a Coast Guard air station at Cape Cod, where they boarded their flight to Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital.

The White House is going green. Solar panels are being installed on parts of the residence, a U.S. official said Thursday -- making good on a pledge that dates back to 2010.

With President Barack Obama and his family vacationing in Martha's Vineyard for a week, workers equipped with cranes have been buzzing around the home in downtown Washington.

The United States on Wednesday strongly condemned Egyptian forces' bloody crackdown on protesters and denounced the imposition of a state of emergency.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest urged the Egyptian military to show restraint after a crackdown on supporters of deposed elected president Mohammed Morsi.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Wednesday to discuss developments in Syria and Egypt, the White House said.

During the course of the call, requested by Erdogan, the two "discussed the danger of foreign extremists in Syria and agreed on the importance of supporting a unified and inclusive" opposition, it said in a statement.

The White House said Monday it would decide "in coming days" whether President Barack Obama will go ahead with a summit in Moscow in early September.

The United States has said it is reviewing whether Obama will meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow after Russia last week gave asylum to Edward Snowden, who is wanted by Washington for leaking details of U.S. surveillance programs.

The White House held a high-level meeting Saturday on terror concerns that prompted Washington to issue a worldwide travel alert and order its embassies across the Islamic world closed temporarily.

The meeting was held as Interpol issued a global security alert after hundreds of militants were set free in jailbreaks linked to the al-Qaida terror network, and as suicide bombers killed nine near the Indian consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.