(CNN) -- Syria's president says he'll welcome the return of U.N. investigators to follow up on more allegations of chemical weapons use in his country. 
 
 "We've been asking them to come back to Syria to continue their investigations," President Bashar al-Assad told Fox News in an interview broadcast Wednesday. 
 
 Al-Assad said he hadn't had time yet to analyze the U.N. investigators' findings so far, but stressed they have more work to do. 
 
 "They haven't finished it yet," he said, adding that it's clear that rebels were behind chemical weapons attacks, not his government. 
 
 Ake Sellstrom, the head of the inspection team that visited after an August 21 attack outside Damascus, told CNN that the next visit could take place as early as next week. 
 
 In the meantime, Al-Assad vowed that his government would comply with the deal to hand over and destroy its chemical weapons, but noted that the timeframe is uncertain and the costs will be great -- up to $1 billion by some estimates. 
 
 And he said that his government's decision to sign on had nothing to do with a threat of military action by the United States. 
 
 "Syria never obeyed any threat. We actually responded to the Russian initiative," he told Fox. "We obey because we want to obey. We have completely different incentives." 
 
 Russia denounces U.N. report 
 
 Soon after Western countries said the U.N. findings implicated the Syrian regime in using sarin gas, Russia fired back, calling the report "distorted." 
 
 Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also told Russia Today that the report was built on insufficient information. He said Russia has its own evidence from the site of the August 21 attack that, according to U.S. estimates, killed more than 1,400 people. 
 
 "This analysis is not finished, so the point here is not about accusing parties," Ryabkov told Russia Today. "But the point is ... that those inspectors of the U.N. should come back to Syria to complete their investigation." 
 
 In the same interview, he said Syria has given Russia evidence that implicates rebels in the August 21 attack, which occurred outside Damascus. 
 
 "This confirmation and this evidence has been transmitted to the Russian side ... and we are in the process of studying those," he said without citing what the evidence was. 
 
 Russia will present evidence to the Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Valdai, Russia, on Wednesday. He did not say when the presentation would take place and added that he himself had not seen it. 
 
 Russia has been a strong ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and Russian defense contracts with Syria have probably exceeded $4 billion. 
 
 Is the U.S. back to square one on Syria? 
 
 The United Nations official in charge of weapons inspectors said that the report alleging chemical weapons use in Syria "stands for itself," shooting back Russian allegations that the report was "biased" and "distorted." 
 
 "It is a very sound, scientific report," Angela Kane, the U.N. high representative for disarmament affairs, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday. 
 
 Moscow's reaction to the U.N. report has differed sharply from those of the United States and France. 
 
 "Based on our preliminary review of information contained in the report, several crucial details confirm the Assad regime's guilt in carrying out this attack," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. 
 
 She said one of the munitions identified in the report, a 120 mm improvised rocket, has been linked to previous attacks by al-Assad's regime, and "we have no indications that the opposition has manufactured or used this style rocket." 
 
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his country also believes the report proves the Syrian regime used chemical warfare in opposition strongholds near Damascus. 
 
 But Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane's Defence Equipment and Technology Centre, said that though the U.N. report appears to prove that high-quality, weaponized sarin was used in significant quantities in Syria, "I have not personally seen any compelling data that proves beyond doubt who the weapons were used by." 
 
 He added: "There is a degree of circumstantial evidence that appears to point to the attack originating with the Assad forces, but the exact forensic detail of who prepared and then triggered the weapons remains unclear and was beyond the scope of the U.N. investigation." 
 
 Securing Syria's chemical weapons: Mission impossible? 
 
 Syrian government claims a win 
 
 United Nations Security Council members met Wednesday to try to hammer out a resolution to get Syria to give up its chemical weapons. It wasn't clear Wednesday night how much progress they'd made. 
 
 Reaching a deal will be tough. U.S. and French officials want to include the threat of military action in the event Syria doesn't comply, but Russian officials don't want any wording that could countenance the use of force. 
 
 The disagreement came days after Russia and the United States reached a rare agreement on Syria -- a plan for eliminating the country's chemical weapons stockpile. Even Syria agreed to the plan, and U.S. President Barack Obama has held back on possible military action while diplomatic options play out. 
 
 But even before seeing a Security Council resolution, the Syrian regime claimed an international win. 
 
 Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi told the Syrian Cabinet about "brilliant victories of the Syrian diplomacy realized ... in terms of preventing the U.S. from launching a military aggression against Syria," the Syrian Arab News Agency reported Wednesday. 
 
 But the diplomacy hasn't stopped bloodshed. The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported Wednesday that regime forces killed 24 people in the village of Kafr Zeiba in Idlib province. 
 
 The Syrian opposition has blamed al-Assad's government for the violence and called for his ouster. 
 
 Al-Assad told Fox News that his government can't back down on what he called a fight against terrorism, arguing that 80%-90% of rebels have ties to al Qaeda or other extremist groups. Civilian casualties in the Syrian conflict, he argued, have come from rebel attacks and from his government's attempts to root out terrorists from residential areas. 
 
 "The army has to go there and get rid of terrorists. The army should defend citizens. You cannot leave them free, killing people, beheading people, eating their hearts," he said. "In every way, you have casualties. This is war. (There is) no clean war, no soft war, no good war." 
 
 Syria's children deserve chance to be kids again 
 
 CNN's Jill Dougherty, reporting from Valdai, Russia, and Yousuf Basil, Jo Shelley, Samira Said, Mick Krever, Nick Paton Walsh, Joe Vaccarello and Alla Eshchenko contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Barack Obama: ''I have no interest in any kind of open-ended conflict in Syria'' 
 
 US President Barack Obama has said he has not yet decided on a plan for retaliatory action against Syria. 
 
 But he said he had concluded Syrian government forces were behind a recent chemical weapons attack near Damascus. 
 
 Speaking on US television, Mr Obama said the use of chemical weapons affected US national interests and that sending a "shot across the bows" could have a positive impact on Syria's war. 
 
 His comments follow a day of behind-the-scenes wrangling at the UN. 
 
 The UK had been pushing for permanent members of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution which would have authorised measures to protect civilians in Syria. 
 
 But Syrian ally Russia refused to agree to the resolution and the meeting produced no end to the diplomatic stalemate which has long characterised the UN position on Syria. 
 
 The US State Department criticised "Russian intransigence" and said it could not allow diplomatic paralysis to serve as a shield for the Syrian leadership. 
 
 Russia is sending an anti-submarine ship and a missile cruiser to the eastern Mediterranean. 
 
 The ships are being sent to strengthen the navy's presence in the area because of the "well-known situation" there, the Russian news agency Interfax has said. 
 
 But another news agency, RIA Novosti, quotes a senior naval command spokesman as saying that this is just a planned rotation, unconnected with Syria. 
 
 'Strong signal' 
 
 Critics have questioned what purpose a limited strike on Syria could serve, but Mr Obama told the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) it would send the government of Bashar al-Assad "a pretty strong signal that it better not [use chemical weapons] again". 
 
 The US has yet to produce the intelligence it says shows Mr Assad's government is guilty of using chemical weapons, and UN weapons inspectors are still investigating inside Syria. 
 
 The team has just begun a third day of on-site investigations, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed for it to be "given time to do its job". He said the inspectors would finish their investigations and be out of the area by Saturday morning. 
 
 Syria denies using chemical weapons and blames opposition fighters for the attack near Damascus on 21 August, which reportedly killed hundreds of people. 
 
 If there was action it would be to send the Syrian regime a 'pretty strong signal' 
 
 It accused the West of "inventing" excuses to launch a strike. 
 
 In a sign of growing fears about an impending attack among Syrians, the Associated Press quoted Lebanese officials as saying at least 6,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon in a 24-hour period through the main Masnaa crossing - compared to a normal daily tally of between 500 and 1,000 refugees. 
 
 "Isn't it enough, all the violence and fighting that we already have in the country, now America wants to bomb us, too?" one 45-year-old woman, entering Lebanon with her five children, told AP. 
 
 In Damascus senior military commanders are reportedly staying away from buildings thought likely to be targeted. You "could hear a pin drop" at one of them, a local resident said. 
 
 'Consequences' 
 
 President Obama told PBS that the US had "not yet made a decision, but the international norm against the use of chemical weapons needs to be kept in place, and hardly anyone disputes that chemical weapons were used in a large scale in Syria against civilian populations". 
 
 Military intervention is morally justified Anthony Luder, Safed, Israel 
 
 Intervening now in Syria would be a terrible mistake Demetrios Nicolaides, Limassol, Cyprus Global readers' voices on Syria 
 
 "We've looked at all the evidence, and we don't believe the opposition possessed chemical weapons of that sort," he said. 
 
 He added he had concluded that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack. 
 
 "There need to be international consequences, so we are consulting with our allies," he said. 
 
 There was "a prospect that chemical weapons could be directed at us - and we want to make sure that doesn't happen". 
 
 The BBC's David Willis in Washington says Mr Obama looked cautious and spoke in a measured way, and he was clearly concerned about getting Congress on board as well as the American public. 
 
 Opinion polls until now have shown very little interest among the US public in getting involved in the Syrian conflict. 
 
 In an open letter to the president, US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner demanded he explain "the intended effect of military strikes", and how he would prevent the intervention escalating, if he wanted to win public and congressional backing for action. 
 
 More than 110 members of Congress have signed a letter formally requesting that Mr Obama seek congressional approval for any action in Syria. 
 
 US officials are expected to give senior members of Congress a classified briefing on the evidence that the Syrian government carried out the alleged chemical attack on Thursday. 
 
 Models for possible intervention Iraq 1991: US-led global military coalition, anchored in international law; explicit mandate from UN Security Council to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait 
 
 US-led global military coalition, anchored in international law; explicit mandate from UN Security Council to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait Balkans 1990s: US arms supplied to anti-Serb resistance in Croatia and Bosnia in defiance of UN-mandated embargo; later US-led air campaign against Serb paramilitaries. In 1999, US jets provided bulk of 38,000 Nato sorties against Serbia to prevent massacres in Kosovo - legally controversial with UN Security Council resolutions linked to "enforcement measures" 
 
 US arms supplied to anti-Serb resistance in Croatia and Bosnia in defiance of UN-mandated embargo; later US-led air campaign against Serb paramilitaries. In 1999, US jets provided bulk of 38,000 Nato sorties against Serbia to prevent massacres in Kosovo - legally controversial with UN Security Council resolutions linked to "enforcement measures" Somalia 1992-93: UN Security Council authorised creation of international force with aim of facilitating humanitarian supplies as Somali state failed. Gradual US military involvement without clear objective culminated in Black Hawk Down disaster in 1993. US troops pulled out 
 
 UN Security Council authorised creation of international force with aim of facilitating humanitarian supplies as Somali state failed. Gradual US military involvement without clear objective culminated in Black Hawk Down disaster in 1993. US troops pulled out Libya 2011: France and UK sought UN Security Council authorisation for humanitarian operation in Benghazi in 2011. Russia and China abstained but did not veto resolution. Air offensive continued until fall of Gaddafi Syria crisis: Western military options Models for possible intervention Press apprehension as Syria tension builds Syria crisis: Where key countries stand 
 
 The US has said it will not take action alone - but one of its primary allies, the UK, has agreed to wait until UN inspectors report back before taking a parliamentary vote on potential action. 
 
 Russia rejected a UK push to try to agree a resolution on Syria among permanent UN Security Council members on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying the UN could not consider any draft resolution or proposed action in Syria before the UN weapons inspectors reported back. 
 
 The use of force without a sanction of the UN Security Council would be a "crude violation" of international law and "lead to the long-term destabilisation of the situation in the country and the region", Mr Lavrov has said. 
 
 UN 'moment' 
 
 The UK, US and France are continuing their discussions following the meeting of the five permanent members. 
 
 The UK will want to be seen to be exhausting every diplomatic avenue, says the BBC's Nick Bryant at the UN headquarters in New York. 
 
 For the UK, there needs to be a UN "moment" - despite the fact that UN action will likely again be blocked by Russia or China. 
 
 But even without UN backing the US and its allies have been clear that they see the military option still open to them, our correspondent says. 
 
 "This is the first use of chemical warfare in the 21st Century," said UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. "It has to be unacceptable... or we will confront even bigger war crimes in the future." 
 
 More than 100,000 people are estimated to have died since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011, and the conflict has produced at least 1.7 million refugees. 
 
 Forces which could be used against Syria:
– Just when it seemed like the US and Russia were suspiciously close to seeing eye-to-eye on Syria, things move back to more familiar territory. A Russian government minister has slammed the UN report findings that chemical weapons were used in Syria as "biased and one-sided," while claiming it has "material evidence" that Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the BBC reports. Russia's not-at-all biased or one-sided source on this? Damascus. The UN report actually didn't accuse either party of using the weapons, though western governments have said it as good as points the finger. "When you look at the details of the evidence they present—it is inconceivable that anybody other than the regime used it," President Obama said yesterday, per Al Jazeera. Experts also tell the New York Times that the details in the report point right back to a powerful Syrian government military base. But Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov says the country wants to examine other alleged incidents of chemical weapons use prior to the August 21 attacks. And so does the UN, it would seem: it will be sending inspectors back for more investigations as early as next week, reports CNN.