A team of UN inspectors crossed into Lebanon from Syria on Saturday after completing their probe into a suspected chemical weapons attack 
near Damasc
The inspectors crossed the border in a convoy of UN vehicles at 7:40 am (1010 IST) escorted by Lebanese security forces.
The 13 inspectors, led by Ake Sellstrom, had left their hotel in Damascus shortly before dawn.
The team have been investigating allegations of the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people.
The UN experts’ departure heightened expectations of a possible international military strike against the regime.
US President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States was weighing “limited, narrow” action against Syria, insisting the world had a duty to act after hundreds of women and children were gassed to death.
Obama emphasised he had made no “final decision” on unleashing military strikes against the Assad regime, but gave his clearest indication yet that an attack was imminent.
French President Francois Hollande said a military strike on Syria could come by Wednesday and that Britain’s surprise rejection of armed intervention would not affect his government’s stand.
“France wants firm and proportionate action against the Damascus regime,” he said in an interview.
The French parliament is due to meet Wednesday for an emergency Syria session.
Washington said that 1,429 people, including 426 children, had died in a chemical attack launched by Bashar al-Assad’s regime last week.
Angela Kane, the UN disarmament envoy who had visited Syria with the UN experts, left Damascus by car on Friday to the border with Lebanon.
She is expected to brief UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon in New York later on Saturday.
The UN experts will “expedite” a report on whether chemical weapons have been used in Syria’s civil war, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.