THE HAGUE, November 22./TASS/. The Organization for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is ready to receive from Russia samples of chemical weapons used by gunmen in Syria, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The Organisation for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently received an offer from Russian authorities to provide some samples and other material in relation to an incident of alleged use of chemicals as weapons in Aleppo," the statement said.

"In view of the security situation in and around Aleppo, the OPCW proposed in a communication to the Russian Foreign Ministry to receive such material in Damascus or The Hague," it said.

"At present, the OPCW is awaiting a response," the statement added.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was working on a possibility to deliver in The Hague samples of chemical weapons used by militants near eastern Aleppo for OPCW experts to study them.

"Unfortunately and apparently under severe pressure of our colleagues, the leadership of this technical organization refused to meet this demand citing security grounds," Lavrov said. "As far as I know from colleagues in the defense ministry, we are looking into the possibility to deliver ourselves the collected samples to The Hague, to the OPCW."

"Then they will find it hard to get off," Lavrov said, stressing that there are no doubts that the samples collected by Russian experts contain "a toxic agent.