Six UN vehicles left the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus today and were understood to be travelling to a suburbwhere a chemical weapons attack is said to have taken place.

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane was on hand to watch the convoy depart.

The team delayed a visit due yesterday for safety reasons after being shot by unknown snipers during a first site visit.

Opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad say his forces used rockets loaded with poison gas in the middle of a fierce offensive on the Damascus outskirts, with activists putting the death toll between 500 and more than 1,000.

Assad denies the charges.

ISRAELIS QUEUE FOR GAS MASKS

Large crowds of Israelis have lined up at gas-mask distribution centres across the country in anticipation of a possible Syrian attack on Israel.

The US has signalled that it will soon strike Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons last week. That has raised speculation that Syria might retaliate with an attack on Israel, a close US ally.

Maya Avishai, of the Israeli postal service, which oversees gas mask distribution, says demand has tripled in recent days. She says about five million Israelis - roughly 60% of the population - now have gas masks.

Israel's Channel 2 TV showed a large crowd at a Tel Aviv distribution centre today, and said people are waiting for hours to collect their free gas masks.