UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon said here Thursday that he just received the final report of Syria's chemical weapons probe, and he will brief the UN General Assembly on the report Friday and the UN Security Council Monday.

The secretary-general made the statement to the press here shortly after he got the report from Ake Sellstrom, the head of an international probe into the alleged use of chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian conflict. Sellstrom is also a Swedish scientist, an expert in chemical weapons.

According to Ban, the report will be posted on the website of the Office for Disarmament Affairs.

"I again commend the team of experts led by Professor Sellstrom for their important and courageous work," Ban said. "They have carried out their tasks with the highest degree of professionalism, and did so in the face of many dangers."

"Much has happened since the first allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria in March of this year," said Ban. "The Syrian government acknowledged that it possessed chemical weapons and subsequently joined the Chemical Weapons Convention."

"An OPCW-UN Joint Mission was established and continues to oversee the timely elimination of Syria's chemical weapons program in the safest and most secure manner possible," he said.

This team is separate from the operation of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mandated by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2118 in September to rid Syria of chemical weapons by the middle of next year.

The Sellstrom team was set up in response to allegations of chemical weapons being used in Syria by both the government and opposition forces. It was only to determine the use of chemical weapons, not who used them.

Its initial assignment was to determine if chemical weapons were used on March 19 in Khan al-Asal and two other sites whose locations were not released.