Concerns over Syria's chemical weapons

(Vatican Radio) A U.S. lawmaker says Syria's chemical weapons could be used at “a moment's notice” and the international community should not accept any assurances from Syrian officials that they will not be used.

Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has expressed US concerns over Syria's weapons.

He said Damascus held a “very dangerous stockpile of chemical weapons”, and some of them had been put in the condition that they could be used “at a moment's notice”.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is to start providing emergency food assistance to thousands of Palestinian refugees caught up in fighting around the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.

WFP hopes to reach over 125,000 Palestinians and displaced Syrians with ready-to-eat food.

“Distribution will start in the next few days, and we will provide ready to eat canned food and approximately 12 kilos per family per week. Palestinian refugees and thousands of displaced Syrians had taken refuge in the camp and then they fled due to escalation of violence. Many of them are now with relatives. They are sheltered in mosques, in schools. They are cold, they are terrified, and we will do our best to provide those people who have been located and identified in those public buildings and where they are with these ready to eat rations,” says Elisabeth Byrs the spokesperson for WFP in Geneva.

The agency needs around $134 million to continue with its food distribution programme inside Syria until June 2013.

Listen to Nathan Morley's report: