The UN Security Council has discussed a draft resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons after the US and Russia agreed to the text. Diplomats at the UN in New York said a vote in the 15-member Council could now take place later today. The agreement breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria. It is seen as a key step in a US-Russia brokered plan earlier this month under which Syria agreed to disclose its arsenal and eliminate it by mid-2014.

Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed resolutions in the Security Council against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.