ROME: Three boats carrying more than 700 asylum-seekers — some of whom were Syrian refugees — landed in Italy on Wednesday, the Coastguard said.

The new arrivals reflected a sharp increase in boats landing with people fleeing conflict-torn parts of the Mediterranean region and the Horn of Africa.

Two of the boats arrived on the island of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point and a major gateway for undocumented migration into the European Union.

The first boat had 398 Syrians on board, the second had 111 whose nationality was yet to be determined.

The latest arrivals have caused severe overcrowding in the temporary migrant centre on the tiny island, which can only house 350 people and was already too full.

A third boat, which was spotted by a patrol plane on Tuesday, arrived in the port of Syracuse in Sicily with around 200 people on board, including 70 children.

The UN refugee agency earlier this month said that at more than 20,000, the number of asylum-seekers arriving in Italy was already around triple the whole of 2012, with most coming from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria.

A 22-year-old Syrian woman was found dead on a boat that arrived on Saturday with 339 people on board. Her funeral was held in Sicily on Wednesday.

Syrian officials supplied the evidence, which Mr Lavrov has not yet seen.

A UN report released on Monday concluded the nerve agent sarin was used in the attack in Damascus, in which hundreds were killed.

The US blamed government forces for the attack, but Russia and Damascus have insisted that rebels were responsible.

The UN report did not apportion blame for the attack, which sparked diplomacy that culminated in a deal for Syria to hand over its chemical arsenal by mid-2014.

The report's author, Ake Sellstrom, told the BBC he believed that the task of finding and destroying Syria's chemical stockpile would be "stressful work", but was "doable".

He said much depended on whether the Syrian government and the opposition were willing to negotiate.

The disarmament deal was brokered by the US and Russia.

The penalty for any possible breaches by Syria are now being thrashed out by the UN Security Council permanent members.

Mr Lavrov said there was plenty of evidence that pointed to rebel involvement in chemical attacks similar to the Damascus attack.

"We will have to find out who did it," he said.

Earlier Mr Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said he had been given the evidence during a trip to Syria.

He said it needed to be analysed, and gave no details of its content.

Mr Ryabkov criticised the UN report, saying it was "distorted" and "one-sided".

"The basis of information upon which it is built is not sufficient, and in any case we would need to learn and know more on what happened beyond and above that incident of 21 August," he said.

"We are disappointed, to put it mildly, about the approach taken by the UN secretariat and the UN inspectors, who prepared the report selectively and incompletely."

In response to Mr Ryabkov's comments, Mr Sellstrom told the BBC he thought Russia was not criticising the report itself but the process, which he described a political matter and therefore not his remit

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius defended the UN report, saying he was surprised by the Russian reaction.

"Nobody can question the objectivity of the people appointed by the UN," he said.

Human Rights Watch has taken the trajectory of the rockets from the UN document and plotted their likely path.

The rights group said the likely launch site for the missiles was in a government military compound.

The UN inspectors were originally mandated to go to Syria to investigate three alleged chemical weapons attacks, at Khan al-Assal, Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb.

But they were later ordered to shift their focus to the Damascus incident, which was the most deadly chemical assault.

They are due to return to Syria "within weeks" to complete their inquiry into the other attacks, and a report is due in October.

On Tuesday the five permanent UN Security Council members met in New York to discuss a draft resolution put forward by the UK, France and the US.

They want a resolution containing the threat of military action against Syria if it fails to comply with the disarmament deal, but Russia opposes this.

A resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter permits military action if other measures do not succeed. Chapter VI requires a purely negotiated solution.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says Russia has delivered a promise from Syria to give up its chemical weapons, and it seems that at this stage Moscow does not feel like giving the Western allies anything more.

Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed Security Council resolutions against Mr Assad.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.

Millions of Syrians have fled the country and millions more have been internally displaced.

But a White House statement cautioned that the US expected Syria "to live up to its public commitments".

The US-Russian framework document stipulates that Syria must provide details of its stockpile within a week.

If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution.

China, France, the UK, the UN and Nato have all expressed satisfaction at the agreement.

In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that China "welcomes the general agreement between the US and Russia".

"This agreement will enable tensions in Syria to be eased," he said.

However, there has so far been no reaction from Damascus.

In the White House statement, President Obama said that the US-Russian deal "represents an important, concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria's chemical weapons under international control so that they may ultimately be destroyed".

However the president warned that while the US would continue working with Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the United Nations and others to ensure that destruction-or-removal process was verifiable, there would be "consequences should the Assad regime not comply with the framework".

"If diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act," he said.

The Pentagon has backed up the president, saying on Saturday that America was still in position for military strikes.

Last-ditch option

The US says the Syrian regime killed hundreds in a gas attack last month.

The government of Bashar al-Assad denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack on 21 August.

Syria recently agreed to join the global Chemical Weapons Convention, and on Saturday the UN said it would come under the treaty from 14 October.

In a joint news conference in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned President Assad that there must be nothing less than full compliance by his government.

Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov said if Syria failed to comply, then a UN resolution would be sought under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force.

However the Russian foreign minister was eager to make clear that force remained a last-ditch option.

"Naturally, no use of force is mentioned in these agreed approaches. Nor are any automatic sanctions mentioned. Any violations must be convincingly and unambiguously proven in the UN Security Council," he said.

Russia and the US have agreed on an assessment that the Syrian government possesses 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and precursors, according to a US official.

The US believes the materials are located in 45 sites, all in government hands, half of which have useable quantities of chemical agents.

But it is thought that Russia does not agree on the number of sites, nor that they are all under the government's control.

'Unfettered access'

The agreement says initial on-site inspections must be completed by November.

It also stipulates that production equipment be destroyed by then, with "complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment in the first half of 2014".

Mr Kerry outlined six points to the agreement which included Syria placing his chemical weapons under international control within a week and allowing weapons inspectors "immediate, unfettered access" to all sites so that whatever is found can be destroyed.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is visiting Beijing, said it was an "important advance" while British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement: "The onus is now on the Assad regime to comply with this agreement in full.

Analysts however remain divided.

Former British ambassador to Syria Sir Andrew Green said that although there would practical difficulties in implementing the deal, it was a diplomatic coup for Russia and "remarkably good news".

"[Firstly] it avoids military action, at least for the time being. Secondly it effectively removes the risk of any further use of chemical weapons by the regime. And thirdly and perhaps more importantly, it generates a dialogue and a co-operation with Russia," he said.

But former US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz - along with Republican senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham - was much more sceptical about the deal.

"Whatever gains it brings in terms of reducing the likelihood of additional chemical weapons use, it's clearly going to come at the price of taking off the table any serious US or western action against the Assad regime, which is a great victory for him and for his Russian and Iranian backers," Mr Wolfowitz said.

The military leader of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army has rejected the deal and promised to continue fighting.

"There is nothing in this agreement that concerns us," said Gen Salim Idriss, describing it as a Russian initiative designed to gain time for the Syrian government.

Mr Kerry is due in Israel on Sunday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will then go to Paris to meet his French, British and Saudi counterparts.

Meanwhile there has been more fighting on the ground in Syria with clashes between government forces and rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, including some of the same areas affected by the 21 August attack.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.

Millions of Syrians have fled the country, mostly to neighbouring nations. However, on Saturday, Italy's coastguard said more than 500 people, mostly Syrians, had been rescued off the Italian coast.

Millions more have been internally displaced within Syria.

Lavrov referred to the section of the charter that provides for enforcement through sanctions, including the possible use of military force, saying that the Security Council expects Syria to comply fully with the demands of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Nevertheless, he cautioned that the Security Council would not accept reports of chemical weapons violations automatically but that they would be investigated.

"Of course it does not mean that each violation reported to the Security Council will be taken on trust. Each will be investigated. We will try to ensure authenticity," he said.

Lavrov praised the agreement between the US and Russia as a "consensus, a compromise and professional".

London, Sep 14 (IANS) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of committing many crimes against humanity.

Speaking at the UN Friday, the secretary general said a UN report next week would provide "overwhelming" confirmation that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

Ban accused Assad of "committing many crimes against humanity", but stopped short of blaming Syria's government for the alleged chemical attack near Damascus last month, The Telegraph reported.

"Therefore, I'm sure that there will be surely the process of accountability when everything is over," The Telegraph quoted Ban as saying.

"I believe the report will be an overwhelming report that the chemical weapons were used," he said.

The secretary general also gave a UN estimate that 1,400 people were killed in the attack at Ghouta, east of Damascus, the report said.

Meanwhile, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said discussions with Russia about putting Syria's chemical arms under international control were "constructive".

"We would both agree that we had constructive conversations regarding that, but those conversations are continuing," the newspaper quoted Kerry as saying.

US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined a six-point framework under which Syria must hand over a full list of its stockpile within a week.

If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution backed by the threat of sanctions or military force.

The US says the Syrian regime killed hundreds in a gas attack last month.

The government of Bashar al-Assad denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack on 21 August.

In a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Mr Kerry called on the Assad government to live up to its public commitments.

"There can be no room for games. Or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime," he said.

Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov said if Syria failed to comply, then a UN resolution would be sought under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force.

Mr Kerry said inspectors must be on the ground by November, and that the stockpiles should be removed or destroyed by mid-2014.

The six points outlined by Mr Kerry were:

France, which was the only country willing to join the US in taking military action in Syria, welcomed the agreement.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was an "important advance".

However, the military leader of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army rejected the deal and promised to continue fighting.

"There is nothing in this agreement that concerns us," said Gen Salim Idriss, describing it as a Russian initiative designed to gain time for the Syrian government.

Mr Kerry said he hoped the deal would help kick-start a wider peace process.

"We could also lay the groundwork for further co-operation that is essential to end the bloodshed that has consumed Syria for more than two years," he said.

"What we agreed on here today could conceivable be the first critical concrete step in that direction."

Mr Lavrov suggested there could be another international peace conference on Syria by October.

"The main thing is to make sure that all Syrian sides are represented at the conference," he said.

Over the years there have been several conferences, some of which have included the Syrian opposition and excluded the government.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.

Millions of Syrians have fled the country, and millions more have been left homeless by the fighting.