France has said that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that Syrian government forces had carried out a mass chemical attack on civilians proved to be true.
But the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said there was no question of sending troops on the ground, in an interview with the television network BFM.
He added that if the UN security council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways." He did not elaborate.
Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in an apparent gas attack on rebel-held parts of eastern Damascus that is thought to be the most significant use of chemical weapons since thousands of Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja 25 years ago.
Medics, as well as opposition fighters and political leaders, said the death toll had reached 1,400 and was likely to rise further with hundreds more critically wounded in districts besieged by the Syrian military. Other estimates put the current death toll at between 200 and 500. None of the figures could be independently verified.
On Thursday morning, rebels said new bombardments of rockets and mortars struck neighbourhoods hit by the gas attack.
The Syrian government acknowledged it had launched a major offensive in rebel-held districts in the east of the capital – described by pro-regime media as the biggest since the start of the civil war – but strongly denied using chemical weapons.
"These are lies that serve the propaganda of the terrorists," a Syrian official said, referring to the armed opposition. "We would not use such weapons."
However, George Sabra, the head of the main Syrian opposition group, laid the blame squarely at the Assad regime, saying the scenes "constitute a turning point in the regime's operations". "This time it was for annihilation, rather than terror," he said.
International reaction intensified throughout Wednesday. The UN security council called an emergency session and the White House formally requested the UN to investigate the attack. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said the UK was "deeply concerned".
The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called for "a thorough, impartial and prompt investigation" of allegations of chemical weapons use.
After a two-hour, closed-door meeting, the council president said there was strong concern about the allegations "and a general sense that there must be clarity on what happened."
A UN inspection team arrived in Damascus this week to look into earlier claims of chemical weapon use, but was granted permission to enterSyria with a limited mission to investigate only three specific sites. An expanded mandate to investigate Wednesday's attack in eastern Ghouta – only 10 miles from the team's hotel – must be sought by the UN secretary general and then approved by Syria.
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