Britain is preparing to attack Syria after concluding that President Bashar al-Assad's government used chemical weapons near Damascus last week, a report said Monday, dpa reported.
"We are clear in the British government that it was the Assad regime that carried out this chemical attack," Foreign Minister William Hague said Sunday.
Hague was dismissive of Syria's willingness to admit UN inspectors to the site: "If the regime believed somebody else had carried out this attack then they would have given access to the UN inspectors several days ago."
A report in The Times newspaper said the British and American army chiefs would meet Monday. A single bombardment of government positions from ships was the favoured approach, it said.
Britain was willing to use force without UN authorization, Hague said Monday.
"Is it possible to respond to chemical weapons without complete unity on the UN Security Council? I would argue yes it is - otherwise of course it might be impossible to respond to such outrages, to such crimes," he told BBC Radio 4.