Syria discloses chemical weapons stockpile details: watchdog

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Syria has disclosed the information on its chemical weapons program that was expected under an agreed Saturday deadline, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said. The disclosure is a crucial stage in the process that should lead to the weapons' destruction. Syria is believed to possess about 1,000 metric tons of toxins, and has agreed to destroy them under a joint Russian-U.S. proposal designed to avert a U.S. military strike on Syria. "The Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information received," a statement on the OPCW website said. The chemical weapons watchdog's core members are due to vote - probably next week - on a plan aimed at fast-tracking the destruction of Syria's stockpiles of chemical arms by mid-2014. The plan emerged after a U.S. threat to attack Syria and intense international diplomacy after a poison gas attack killed hundreds of civilians on the outskirts of Damascus last month. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Mike Collett-White)