US politicians are set to discuss backing for military action against Syria as President Barack Obama prepares to make a series of TV appearances to push his case.
Congress will start debating the issue today and are expected to vote later this week on whether to authorise force in Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 civilians in Damascus.
While the White House believes an endorsement from the Senate could be within reach, Mr Obama faces a wall of opposition from both Republicans and from many of his Democratic allies in the House of Representatives.
The White House has refused to state whether Mr Obama, elected in 2008 promising to end foreign wars, would order a strike even if Congress votes "no".
In a determined final effort for authorisation, Mr Obama is due to appear on several US TV networks today, ahead of delivering a live address to the nation on Tuesday.
London is in John Kerry's sights as he seeks support for Syria strikes Secretary of State John Kerry is also looking to boost support for action when he holds talks with Foreign Secretary William Hague in London this morning.
Speaking in Paris at a news conference before he left for London, Mr Kerry said 12 countries were now prepared to take military action against Syria. Those states would make their own announcements within 24 hours, he added.
He did not rule out returning to the UN Security Council to secure a Syria resolution once UN inspectors complete their report on the alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21.
The French president, Francois Hollande, who is increasingly under pressure to seek a UN mandate before any military intervention in Syria, suggested that he could seek a resolution at the security council despite previous Russian and Chinese vetos.
Mr Kerry said: "On President Hollande's comments with respect to the UN, the president (Barack Obama), and all of us, are listening carefully to all of our friends. No decision has been made by the president."
Congress will vote on whether to launch military action in Syria Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al Assad has denied he was behind the alleged chemical attack in an interview to US television network CBS.
CBS correspondent Charlie Rose, who interviewed Mr Assad in Damascus, said: "The most important thing, as he says, is that 'there's no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people'."
The Speaker of Syria's parliament, Mohammad Jihad al Laham, has also told Sky News that a US attack would result in the country retaliating with "all available force".
In the UK, former defence secretary Liam Fox told Sky's Murnaghan programme on Sunday that there was a case for another Commons vote "in the light of the wider evidence that is now available".
He said the debate had been about the consequences of intervention "but there wasn't enough debate, I don't feel, about the consequences of non-intervention."
"If we believe the regime in Syria still has chemical weapons and if, as many of us think, the opposition may also have access to chemical weapons and we send the signal that they can use them with impunity what does that mean for the safety ... of the ordinary people of Syria?"
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