Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday told his British counterpart William Hague of the need to wait for the results of a UN probe of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus before taking any action against Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday told his British counterpart William Hague of the need to wait for the results of a UN probe of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus before taking any action against Syria.

"The Russian side stressed the need to wait for the results of the work of the UN inspection mission who is currently in Syria (and) investigating the claims of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The phone call took place at the request of the British side, the statement said.
Britain Wednesday submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for action to protect Syrian civilians.

The British government later published a motion saying Britain will not take military action against Damascus before the inspectors report back. The motion is set to be put to a parliamentary vote.

Earlier Wednesday Russia stressed it was premature to mull any reaction by the United Nations Security Council before the UN team inspecting the site of the alleged chemical attacks in Syria releases its findings.

"Discussing some sort of reaction by the Security Council before UN inspectors working in Syria publish their report is at the very least untimely," first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov told the Interfax news agency.

Titov added that Russia supported UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria pitting the government against the rebels.

The United States and its allies are building their case for military action against the Damascus regime for alleged chemical weapons attacks despite vehement protests from Russia.

Earlier Wednesday, Ban called on a divided UN Security Council to unite.

"The Council must at last find the unity to act. It must use its authority for peace," the UN chief said in a speech at The Hague.

Russia, which has supported the Damascus regime throughout the two-and-a-half-year conflict, is widely expected to block any Security Council action aimed at punishing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Separately, Ban during a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov at the Hague said he was in favour of the UN inspectors continuing their mission in Syria, state-run ITAR-Tass reported.

Ban said that "the experts had managed to poll a large number of witnesses (and) collect relevant evidence which needs to be thoroughly analyzed," Gatilov was quoted as saying.

"It is not ruled out that all this documentation will be forwarded to the headquarters of the Organization for the (Prohibition) of Chemical Weapons or the World Health Organization so that specialists there could verify the data received by the experts in greater detail."

"He (Ban) believes that the inspectors are working efficiently and they need to be given time."