Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Thursday on the need for the U.N. Security Council to study a report by U.N. experts on the alleged chemical attack outside Damascus, the Kremlin said.

"Both sides proceed from the fact that active work will be continued within the framework of the United Nations and other formats on issues of a political and diplomatic settlement of the current situation," the Kremlin said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle revealed on Thursday that his country has started to receive 5,000 Syrians who were forced to flee their country over the ongoing conflict there.

He added that he supports Lebanon's efforts to assist the refugees, saying that Germany recently paid 30 million euros in aid for their cause.

Most Germans would oppose military action by the West in Syria after an alleged chemical attack blamed on the regime of President Bashar Assad, said a poll published Thursday.

Fifty-eight percent of those asked said they would reject a military response, while 33 percent said they would back it, according to the survey for ZDF public television which said nine percent were undecided.

Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday called on Germans to welcome thousands of Syrian refugees due to begin arriving next month, as a new political refugee center in Berlin stokes anti-foreigner sentiment.

Germany announced earlier in the year that it was ready to take in another 5,000 Syrians seeking refuge from the war-torn country.

Less than a month before German elections, the eurozone crisis has entered the campaign battle, giving the opposition badly needed ammunition for an attack against popular Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"This naturally spells a certain risk for the conservative Merkel, because so far the Germans have felt their savings were secure" despite the crisis, said Lothar Probst, a political scientist at Bremen University.

Germany on Monday said it would support "consequences" against the Syrian regime if its suspected deadly use of chemical weapons is confirmed.

"The use of chemical weapons of mass destruction would be a crime against civilization," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told a Berlin conference of German ambassadors.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized Damascus allies China and Russia for blocking a Western-backed U.N. text demanding that inspectors probing chemical weapons use in Syria be given unfettered access.

Her comments were made in an interview with Focus magazine, extracts of which were published on Saturday, even as a top U.N. envoy arrived in Damascus to discuss the terms on an inquiry into the alleged chemical attacks.

Germany's finance minister says he expects a future aid package for Greece to be much smaller than the country's existing rescue deals.

In two bailout packages so far, Greece's European partners and the International Monetary Fund have committed 240 billion euros ($320 billion) in loans. This week, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there will have to be another aid program after the current one expires next year.

A far-right murder spree targeting mostly Turkish migrants in Germany went undetected for years because of widespread institutional bias among security services, the head of a parliamentary committee said Thursday.

The panel was readying to release a report at 1130 GMT on how the neo-Nazi killers of the so-called National Socialist Underground (NSU) were able to murder 10 people over seven years without being caught.

It's survived two world wars, communist spies and a Quentin Tarantino movie production and at the ripe age of 100, Berlin's most legendary dance hall is also among its most unlikely success stories.

As Claerchens Ballhaus (Claerchen's Ballroom) prepares to fete its centenary next month, the fabled venue still sees hordes of party-goers young and old queue up in front of its crumbling facade.