Putin suggests US will again strike Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia has information that the United States is planning to launch new missile strikes on Syria, and that there were plans for the US to fake chemical weapons attacks there.

Putin, standing alongside Italian President Sergio Mattarella who was in Moscow for talks, said Russia would tolerate western criticism of its role in Syria but hoped that attitudes would eventually soften.

"We have information that a similar provocation is being prepared ... in other parts of Syria including in the southern Damascus suburbs where they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities of using (chemical weapons)," Putin said.

He did not offer any proof for that assertion.