International experts were on Friday gearing up to disable the chemical weapons program in Syria after reporting "encouraging" progress in a day of meetings with regime officials.

International experts were on Friday gearing up to disable the chemical weapons program in Syria after reporting "encouraging" progress in a day of meetings with regime officials.

The team said it hopes to begin on-site inspections and the initial disabling of equipment "within the next week".

They arrived in Syria on Tuesday, and reported "encouraging initial progress" after a day of meetings with the authorities on Thursday.

"Documents handed over yesterday by the Syrian government look promising, according to team members," The UN team said.

"The operation's timeline depends directly on the technical groups that include Syrian experts."

An OPCW official said that its immediate aim is to disable production sites by late October or early November using "expedient methods" including explosives, sledgehammers and pouring concrete.

President Bashar al-Assad reiterated Syria's commitment to the implementation of the UN resolution pertaining the chemical weapons and repeatedly asserted that the disarmament operation would be complicated.

A team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations has been tasked with implementing the UN resolution to destroy the Syrian chemical arsenal by mid-2014.