U.S. to Gauge Viability of Arms Plan in Russia Talks GENEVA - Secretary of State John Kerry and a team of American arms control experts arrived here Thursday to begin talks with their Russian counterparts on a plan to secure and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons. American officials said they were planning a series of early tests to determine if the Russian government, and more importantly President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, were serious about accepting international control of Syria's huge chemical arsenal. One test is the willingness of Russia and Syria to accept "a rapid beginning to international control" that would preclude the Assad government from accessing and using chemical weapons, said a senior State Department official who was traveling on Mr. Kerry's plane. Another test is how much candor the Syrian government is prepared to show about its chemical weapons stocks and production facilities. "There are some specific things that we can ask for, and see if they get delivered very quickly, that will give us an early sense of whether there is reality here or not," the State Department official said. The Syrian government, the official said, could "declare all of their stockpile quickly." Mr. Kerry plans to meet late Thursday afternoon with Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy who would play a major role if talks on a potential political settlement in Syria are resumed. Mr. Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, and his delegation Thursday evening. The American-Russian talks will continue on Friday and probably on Saturday. The meetings will take place at the same Geneva hotel where then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Mr. Lavrov with a red "reset" button in 2009 to symbolize the Obama administration's efforts to improve ties with Moscow - an effort that so far has been largely stymied. American officials have been hoping the two sides can cobble together an effective plan but are wary of being drawn into prolonged talks that would serve as a delaying tactic to preclude an American-led military strike. The task of coming up with a verifiable plan to inspect, control and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons during a civil war is daunting. Though Obama administration officials have said that the problem of Syria's chemical weapons has been discussed with the Russians for more than a year, the two sides have not yet talked about the problem in detail. For example, the United States and Russia have yet to compare intelligence on the size of Syria's chemical stocks, its main elements and where they are located. American officials have declassified intelligence reports and plan to begin that process here. "What we will be looking at is the chemical weapons stockpiles, the production facilities, precursor chemicals and to the extent that there are munitions that are used to spread those chemical weapons in whatever manner," the State Department official said. How to protect any inspectors who would examine Syria's weapons and which nations would supply the monitors are also important questions. While American officials are still waiting for the Russians to present a detailed plan, some elements were described by Russian officials and in news reports in Moscow. The proposal that Russia has presented for resolving the crisis over chemical weapons in Syria, presented to the United States and other nations on Wednesday, would unfold in stages that could take months to put into place. Speaking to reporters in Kazakhstan, Mr. Lavrov said the first step would be for Syria to sign the international Convention on Chemical Weapons, which bans the manufacture, storage and use of the weapons. After that, according to a diplomatic official cited by the newspaper Kommersant, Syria would be required to declare the sites of its chemical arsenal to the organization that oversees the treaty. Inspectors would then be dispatched to verify those declarations, a potentially laborious effort complicated by the uncertain security situation in the country. Michael R. Gordon reported from Geneva, and Steven Lee Myers reported from Moscow.