Report: Russia 'doesn't exclude' support for U.N.approved military strike on Syria

As lawmakers in the United States and France prepared Wednesday to debate the merits of military intervention in Syria's brutal civil war, Russia's president said his country could back a U.N.-approved military strike on Syria if there's proof that the regime used chemical weapons. "If there are data that the chemical weapons have been used, and used specifically by the regular army, this evidence should be submitted to the U.N. Security Council," President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with The Associated Press and Russia's state Channel 1 television. "It should be a deep and specific probe containing evidence that would be obvious and prove beyond doubt who did it and what means were used," he told the news agency. Putin said he "doesn't exclude" supporting a U.N. resolution on military strikes given strong evidence -- but also cautioned against the U.S. striking without one. Five things we learned from Senate hearing on Syria Nations including the United States, France and Britain have concluded the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical weapons attack last month on rebel-held territory outside of Damascus. The United States says that more than 1,400 people died. On Wednesday, French lawmakers are scheduled to debate the merits of a strike favored by President Francois Hollande to punish Syria for that attack. In the United States, a Senate committee will discuss a resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to stage a limited military response. Four questions for backers of Syrian mission Obama said last year that the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war would cross a "red line" for U.S. intervention. International agreements ban the use of chemical weapons, and many Western leaders worry that allowing their use to go unchecked in Syria could weaken that prohibition. "As much as we're criticized, when bad stuff happens around the world the first question is what is the U.S. going to do about it?" Obama told reporters in Stockholm, Sweden, after meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.