military strike on Syria would be "limited and proportional" -Obama
Barack Obama: "This is a limited, proportional step that will send a clear message"
President
Barack Obama has said any US military strike on Syria would be "limited
and proportional" and that he was confident Congress would back him.
Mr Obama was meeting key committee leaders to press for a
military response to what the US believes was a chemical weapons attack
by Syria.French President Francois Hollande called for a united European response, but will wait for the Congress vote.
The UN earlier confirmed that more than two million Syrians were now refugees.
Also on Tuesday, Israel carried out a joint missile test with the US in the Mediterranean, amid heightened tension over the possibility of Western military strikes on Syria.
More than 100,000 people are thought to have died since the uprising against President Assad began in March 2011.
'Broader strategy' President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden met House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi and the chairmen and ranking members from the national security committees in Washington on Tuesday.
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It would be ironic if Mr Obama's decision to get congressional backing forced him further down the road to war than he thought was wise last week”
Mr Boehner signalled his support
for Mr Obama's call for action, saying that only the US had the capacity
to stop President Assad. Mr Boehner urged his colleagues in Congress to
follow suit.
Ms Pelosi said she did not believe Congress would reject a resolution calling for force.Mr Obama said that Mr Assad had to be held accountable for the chemical attack and that he was confident Congress would back him.
He said he was proposing military action that would degrade President Assad's capacity to use chemical weapons "now and in the future".
"What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad's capabilities," said the president.
"At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition."
Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top US military officer, Gen Martin Dempsey, are to appear later on Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
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Some elements of the Syrian chemical weapons complex may be
buried underground but large parts of it can easily be seen on satellite
images.
Much of it is reasonably close to populated areas - and this is the problem.
Attacking such sites with regular explosive bombs might well wreak considerable damage but it could also open up chemical weapons stocks to the air, disperse them over a large area, and potentially cause large numbers of civilian casualties
Analysis
Much of it is reasonably close to populated areas - and this is the problem.
Attacking such sites with regular explosive bombs might well wreak considerable damage but it could also open up chemical weapons stocks to the air, disperse them over a large area, and potentially cause large numbers of civilian casualties
There will also be a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
A vote in Congress is expected next week.Two of Mr Obama's fiercest foreign policy critics, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have already backed his stance.
France has strongly backed the US plan for military action.
Mr Hollande said: "When a chemical massacre takes place, when the world is informed of it, when the evidence is delivered, when the guilty parties are known, then there must be an answer."
He called for Europe to unite on the issue, but said he would wait for the Congress vote.
If Congress did not support military action France "would not act alone", he said.
The US has put the death toll from the attack on the outskirts of Damascus on 21 August at 1,429, including 426 children, though other countries and organisations have given lower figures.
The Syrian government denies any involvement.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday, President Assad said such an action would have been "illogical".
He warned that foreign military action could ignite a wider regional conflict.
As tensions rose on Tuesday, a senior Israeli defence official confirmed to the BBC that a missile had been fired to test its defence systems.
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Jerusalem says it is a sign that Israel is taking very seriously the possibility that any US air strikes could lead to retaliatory attacks on Israel - either by Syria itself or by its ally, the Shia militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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