UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed Thursday his confidence that Syria will meet a June 30 deadline to eliminate its chemical weapons under an agreement it signed with the OPCW last October.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed Thursday his confidence that Syria will meet a June 30 deadline to eliminate its chemical weapons under an agreement it signed with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last October, SANA news agency reported.

“About these chemical weapons, I believe the process has been moving on rather smoothly even though there have been some delays,” Ban told the reporters following a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Sochi city, Russia.

"Our target is June 30 this year. This may be a very tight target, but I believe that it can be done with the full support of the Syrian government," said Ban, who will attend the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday.

He noted that he received promises from Syrian Deputy Prime, Minister Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem during talks at the Geneva 2 conference last month that the process of eliminating the chemical weapons will move on according to the schedule.

Syrian Foreign Ministry signed on Wednesday with the UN and the OPCW an agreement regarding the legal center of the joint mission for the disposal of chemical weapons and a memo of understanding on securing medical services and medical evacuation services to the joint mission in cases of emergency.

In statements to journalists following the signing, Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal al-Mikdad stressed that Syria is moving forward with determination, strength and credibility towards full implementation of the agreements signed with the UN and the OPCW, and that these agreements are part of the responsible actions taken by Syria since it voluntarily joined the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Treaty.