NATO chief welcomes US, Russia deal on Syrian chemical weapons

BRUSSELS (Xinhua) - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Saturday welcomed a US-Russian framework agreement on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons.

"This is an important step towards the goal of ensuring the swift, secure and verifiable elimination of Syria's stocks of chemical weapons. Full and unreserved Syrian compliance is now key, " he said in a statement.

Earlier Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov reached agreement on a framework to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014 and impose UN penalties if the Bashar al-Assad government fails to comply.

"The international community has a responsibility to make sure that the long-standing norm and practice against the use of chemical weapons is maintained, and violators are held accountable, " Rasmussen said.

The NATO chief also said the agreement should give further momentum to a political solution to end the conflicts in Syria.