U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron inched closer Saturday to attributing blame for a massive chemical weapons attack near Damascus to Bashar Assad's armed forces.

A Downing Street statement said the U.S. and British leaders "are both gravely concerned by... increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people."

U.S. President Barack Obama met with security aides Saturday to discuss a response to Syria's alleged chemical attack after the Pentagon said it was preparing for possible military action.

The meeting came a day after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the military had presented options to Obama and was moving forces into place ahead of any possible decision.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized in an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama his inaction in Syria after an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus which the opposition says left hundreds dead and provoked revulsion around the world.

“Syria's regime forces led by President Bashar Assad are currently engaged in ethnic cleansing, mass rape, systematic torture, (including of infants) leveling of cities upon their inhabitants, and, last but not least, using highly virulent nerve gas, causing mass civilian casualties,” Geagea said in his letter to Obama.

U.S. President Barack Obama appeared to suggest in an interview aired Friday that pulling U.S. aid from Egypt would not reverse the behavior of its ruling generals after a coup.

Obama's administration is currently reviewing the status of U.S. assistance to Cairo following the ouster of ex-president Mohammed Morsi and a subsequent crackdown on Islamists.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he is "confident" that vast surveillance programs are not being abused but admitted that Americans have "legitimate" concerns.

"We do have to do a better job of giving people confidence in how these programs work," Obama told CNN in an interview.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Friday that new allegations of chemical weapons use by Syrian forces were of "grave concern".

But he cautioned against the United States intervening hastily and getting "mired in very difficult situations" with actions that could "breed more resentment" in the region.

The U.S. government spied on electronic communications between Americans with no links to terror suspects until a judge ruled it illegal in 2011, officials acknowledged Wednesday.

The unlawful program, which involved tens of thousands of emails, was revealed in declassified documents from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews the legality of eavesdropping programs.

Four officials placed on administrative leave during a probe into the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, can return to work, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

The September 11 attack left four people dead, including ambassador Chris Stevens, and caused a political storm between U.S. President Barack Obama's administration and his Republican opponents.

President Barack Obama was back home at the White House late Sunday, ending his eight-day summer vacation at exclusive Martha's Vineyard off the U.S. east coast.

The president, his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia left their rental home on the island under steady rain and took a helicopter to a Coast Guard air station at Cape Cod, where they boarded their flight to Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital.

President Barack Obama returns to Washington on Sunday after a brief summer vacation readying for what is expected to be a rocky autumn dominated by showdowns with Republicans.

Obama interrupted an eight-day break at exclusive Martha's Vineyard last week to denounce the bloody crackdown in Cairo by Egypt's military.