Russia: Strike on Syria could mean nuke disaster

 China warned on Thursday that a military strike on Syria would hurt the global economy, in particular by causing oil prices to rise, and reiterated its calls for a political solution to the civil war.

   "Military action would have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price - it will cause a hike in the oil price," Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told a briefing on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit.

 On another note, spokesman of the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner said that he rejected a request to meet with a Russian delegation to discuss Syria.

 Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed plans to send a delegation to the United States to hold talks with Congress.

 The initiative aimed at convincing U.S. lawmakers to vote down President Barack Obama's call to support limited military strikes in Syria in retaliation to Syria's alleged sarin gas attack on the 21st of August.

This comes as Russia is warning that a U.S. strike on Syria's atomic facilities might result in a nuclear catastrophe and is urging the U.N. to present a risk analysis of such a scenario.

The warning comes from Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich. He said in a statement Wednesday that a strike on a miniature reactor near Damascus or other nuclear installations could contaminate the region with radioactivity, adding: "The consequences could be catastrophic."

Russia's Interfax news agency says that Moscow intends to bring up the issue at next week's 35-nation IAEA board meeting.