Syria lists chemical weapons Heading to the front: Free Syrian Army fighters hit the road in Aleppo. The Syrian government has submitted "an initial declaration" on the chemical weapons it possesses, meeting the first deadline of the framework agreement Russia and the United States concluded to avert Western military strikes. "We have received an initial disclosure from Syria of its chemical weapons program," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement. It's now being examined by the technical secretariat. OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said he could not offer any details of the Syrian submission but a United Nations diplomat said the Syrian document was "quite long" and was being translated from Arabic. A UN chemical weapons expert holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus. The declaration's completeness is an early test of President Bashar al-Assad's commitment to relinquish Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Dr Assad's decision to abandon his secrecy over his chemical weapons - said to be the biggest arsenal in the Middle East - and join treaties controlling their use was met initially with scepticism. But a senior administration official said the US was encouraged by the inventory the Syrian government had submitted. "We were pleasantly surprised by the completeness of their declaration," the official, who declined to be identified, said. It was better than expected. The OPCW did not give details of what was contained in the disclosures, but its principal backer, Russia - which played a key role in forcing Dr Assad to agree to the weapons deal - already agrees with American assessments of the arsenal's size. Analysts estimate the regime has about 1000 tonnes of toxins including sarin, VX nerve agent and mustard gas, as well as delivery systems. Under the framework agreement, the declaration is to detail types and quantities of all Syria's chemical agents, munitions and precursor chemicals, as well as all laboratories for developing the agents and facilities for producing weapons. The OPCW does not publicly disclose the contents of declarations. But its assessment of the accuracy and thoroughness of Syria's statement will be crucial in determining how inspectors can best proceed with the agreement's next stage, which includes far more formidable tests of the Assad government's co-operation. By November, international monitors are to inspect all of Syria's declared sites. Equipment to produce and mix chemical weapons is to be destroyed. Syria's entire arsenal is to be eliminated by the middle of next year, although Dr Assad has said that process could take a year. Under the framework agreement, the US and Russia are to outline procedures for quickly eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program and verifying that the country is not hiding any weapons or stocks. A draft outlining those procedures is subject to endorsement by the OPCW executive council, followed by the Security Council resolution mandating elimination of Syria's chemical arsenal. The executive council was to have met this weekend but instead will likely convene towards the middle or end of this week, according to Mr Luhan, who gave no reason for the delay. The US has identified at least 45 sites associated with Syria's chemical weapons program and has suggested that half of them had "exploitable" quantities of chemical warfare materials, although US officials also said Syrian forces had been moving stocks, so the locations could have changed. According to US officials, the sites where Syria's chemical weapons and stocks are held were controlled by Dr Assad's government. While Russia has agreed with the estimate of the size of Syria's arsenal, it has not endorsed the US list of the sites linked to the Syrian program. New York Times; Telegraph, London