Obama: World cannot let Assad get away with attack

The US has said that it would punish President Assad for the "brutal and flagrant" chemical weapons attack that it reported killed more than 1,400 people in Damascus last week.

"We cannot accept a world where women and children and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale," President Obama told reporters at the White House.

He said the United States was still in the planning process for a "limited, narrow" military response that would not involve "boots on the ground" or be open-ended. He set no timetable for action.