Syria hands over chemical weapons details

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has received details from the Syrian government of the country's chemical weapons program.

A UN investigation team take samples in Damascus. (AAP)

The world's chemical weapons watchdog says it has received details on Syria's program and arsenal, which it has been tasked with dismantling.

"The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has received an initial disclosure from the Syrian government of its chemical weapons program," the Hague-based organisation said in a statement.

The OPCW's Technical Secretariat is now examining the details, it said.

The organisation has postponed a meeting of its Executive Council set for Sunday that had been due to discuss how to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons program.

Spokesman Michael Luhan said the Syrian declaration is "being reviewed by our verification division".

The organisation will not release details of what is in the declaration.

The OPCW, which polices the treaty outlawing chemical weapons, is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents as well as its production facilities.

Under a US-Russia agreement brokered last weekend in Switzerland, inspectors are to be on the ground in Syria by November.

During that month, they are to complete their initial assessment and all mixing and filling equipment for chemical weapons is to be destroyed.

All components of the chemical weapons program are to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014.