A U.S. congressional panel posted videos of Syrian victims Saturday, many of them children, as the White House presses its case for a strike against Damascus.

The 13 graphic videos were shown to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, according to the panel's website, which says they "explicitly claim to show victims of a chemical or poison gas attack."

Inaction is not an option for the United States in Syria after a horrendous chemical attack, U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday as he urged holdout lawmakers to back a military strike.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to images like the ones we've seen out of Syria," Obama said in his weekly address.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was to meet EU ministers Saturday to rally support for military strikes against Syria, after a G20 summit failed to resolve bitter international divisions on the issue.

Kerry will press the case for punitive action against Syria after what the United States says was a chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar Assad near Damascus.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale, who assumed his mission in Beirut on Friday, informed Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati that there is an official decision to steer Lebanon clear of the repercussions of a possible military strike on Syria, An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said that Hale told Miqati during a meeting they held at the Grand Serail that Washington has officially decided to distance Lebanon from the possible strike against Syria in response to the alleged chemical attack by the regime, which the U.S. administration said killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday met Russian gay rights activists after the G20 summit, in a symbol of U.S. support for the community amid a furore over an "anti-gay" Russian law.

Two gay rights activists were among a group of nine Russian civil society members Obama briefly met just before taking off from Saint Petersburg after the two-day G20 summit hosted by President Vladimir Putin.

President Barack Obama moved to defuse a row with Brazil and Mexico over alleged U.S. spying on leaders of the Latin American countries, promising them that the United States would cooperate to address concerns over the claims.

Obama told Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in separate meetings at the G20 summit that he understood their concerns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he held talks on Syria with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit but confirmed the meeting did not end their differences on the conflict, as the American leader said he knew convincing the U.S. Congress to back military action against Damascus would be a "heavy lift."

"We spoke sitting down... it was a constructive, meaningful, cordial conversation. Each of us kept with our own opinion," Putin told reporters, saying the meeting lasted 20 to 30 minutes.

President Barack Obama has signed up power brokers in Congress for strikes on Syria but, in an era of insurgent politics haunted by Iraq, there is no guarantee the rank and file will follow.

Obama has mobilized his big political and military guns to convince lawmakers to back his plan to punish President Bashar Assad over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

Iran is carefully watching the divisive U.S. debate on whether to launch military strikes against its chief ally, Syria, but the Obama administration may be at risk of sending Tehran the wrong message, analysts warn.

In days of passionate testimony, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said America and the world must send a warning to Iran and others that they will not turn a blind eye to the use of non-conventional arms amid accusations the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad unleashed chemical weapons on his people.

Mexico's leader said Thursday he asked U.S. President Barack Obama to order an investigation into allegations the National Security Agency spied on him, and punish those responsible if laws were broken.

"The Mexican government has made it clear that there must be an investigation and that there must be sanctions if there were acts that were outside international agreements and outside the law," President Enrique Pena Nieto said after speaking with Obama by telephone.