Britain urges quick Syria chlorine probe

 British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday pressed theworld's chemical weapons watchdog to finish its probe into the alleged use ofchlorine gas in Syria as urgently as possible.The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced Tuesday it issending a fact-finding mission to Syria after claims that President Bashar al-Assad'sforces may have unleashed industrial chemicals on civilians."The UK pushed hard to secure an investigation and we call on the OPCW to carryout its mandate with urgency," Hague said in a statement. "Time is of the essence in establishing the full facts. The mission must be given fullaccess to all sites and be allowed to carry out its investigation without an interference or delay."Britain said it would give the OPCW any assistance it needed to investigate the"sickening" allegations.The OPCW and the United Nations are already destroying Syria's chemical weaponsas part of a Russian-US disarmament deal agreed last August in the wake of deadlysarin nerve agent attacks outside Damascus.France and the United States first highlighted the allegations earlier this month thatAssad's regime was using the chemical chlorine against civilians despite the deal. Source: AFP