Kerry launches direct appeal to French to back strikes on Syria John Kerry, US secretary of state, has appealed to a sceptical French public to back President François Hollande's commitment to join a military strike on Syria as he battled to rally international support for action in response to last month's chemical attack in Damascus. His impassioned statement in French at a televised press conference in Paris came after he attended a meeting in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, of foreign ministers from the 28 EU states who called for a "clear and strong response" to the chemical assault but fell short of endorsing military reprisals. France is the only European country so far to pledge to join Washington's plan for armed intervention, but polls have shown strong public opposition, similar to public doubts in the US. In a clear attempt to sway opinion, Mr Kerry employed his strength in French to express his ""profound gratitude at having France by our side," saying it was "no exaggeration to say the security of the whole world depends . . . on the way we will react." He evoked the use of poison gas on French soil during the first world war and said it was "more crucial than ever" for the two countries to stand together "in the face of this massacre" to deter any further use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, or other weapons of mass destruction by countries such as Iran. Mr Kerry acknowledged the "huge doubts" in the US about taking military action because of what happened in Iraq 10 years ago, when no weapons of mass destruction were found. "I completely understand because we all got burnt by that," he said. But he said there was no doubt this time about the use of chemical arms and who was responsible. "This is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter," he said. The secretary of state and Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, insisted that support for a tough response to the chemical attack on August 21 was growing. Mr Kerry said although the EU statement did not specifically back military action, he welcomed it as a "clear statement of presumption" that the Assad regime was responsible for the attack. "Overwhelming support is moving in the direction of holding the Assad regime responsible," he said, also citing the backing of 12 members of the G20 who have now endorsed a statement calling for a "strong international response." In their statement, EU foreign ministers put the blame for the chemical attack squarely on the shoulders of the Assad regime, saying it was "the only one that possesses chemical weapons agents and means of their delivery in a sufficient quantity." But while the ministers called the incident "a war crime" and "a crime against humanity" and insisted on a "clear and strong response," they refrained from backing a military strike, saying any punishment must go "through the UN process" - something the Obama administration has argued is incapable of addressing the crisis because of Russian opposition. "Our voices are clear in saying we want a clear and strong response," said Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief when asked if the EU would back military action by France and the US. She said ministers did not ask Mr Kerry to promise to wait until the UN completes its inspection report, as their agreed position called for: "We didn't ask him to pledge anything, nor should he." Mr Hollande on Friday said France would wait for the report, as well as for the outcome of the US congressional debates due to start on Monday, before launching any military action. But this appears unlikely to cause an additional delay as Mr Hollande said on Saturday is was expected by the end of next week. Although the EU did not explicitly back military action, the statement was one of the strongest to date from the US's European allies. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, said the process now allowed Berlin to sign the G20 statement. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had failed to sign on to the statement by the end of the St Petersburg summit on Friday.