China on Sunday welcomed the deal between the United States and Russia to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, which headed off the prospect of US strikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The Chinese side welcomes the framework agreement between the US and Russia. This agreement will enable tensions in Syria to be eased," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a meeting with his visiting French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

It was the first official reaction by China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to the deal reached in Geneva on Saturday after three days of talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Sergei Lavrov.

Fabius, who arrived in Beijing Sunday morning and was due to head back to Paris later the same day, called the pact "a significant step forward".

"Only a few days ago, Syria was denying having chemical weapons and having used them. From now on we are in a new phase," he said.

But while the plan was an important advance, it was "only a first stage", he told reporters later.

The Geneva deal will form the basis of a United Nations resolution to be agreed within a week, he said, but its enforcement would have to be monitored "extremely closely".

There would not be automatic sanctions if Syria did not comply, he said.

The pact came after Washington led calls for military action in response to an August 21 chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus blamed by the US -- which says more than 1,400 people were killed -- and others on the Syrian government.

Damascus denies responsibility and has blamed rebel forces for the incident.

Paris has been one of Washington's strongest supporters over the issue and Fabius said it was clear the regime was to blame, as the Syrian rebels had no chemical weapons, no delivery mechanism for them and no technical ability in the area.

"When you put all that together there is not a lot of doubt. When I say not a lot of doubt, I mean none," he said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- who has accused Assad of "many crimes against humanity" -- is due to issue a report on the incident Monday and Fabius said: "No-one will understand if there were no consequences following a damning report. It will be necessary to react and take action."

The US-Russian agreement is intended to bring Syria's chemical weapons under international control by the middle of next year.

Assad now has a week to hand over details of his regime's stockpile and Kerry said he must provide "immediate and unfettered" access to chemical weapons inspectors.

More than 110,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the two-and-a-half year conflict, and rebel representatives have rejected the US-Russian deal, fearing it eliminates any chance of Western military intervention on their side.

Over the course of the conflict China has consistently joined with Russia, a fellow UN Security Council veto-holder, to block resolutions supported by Washington and its allies.

Beijing routinely says it opposes interference in other countries' internal affairs.

It regularly calls for a "political solution" to the Syrian crisis.

The meeting between Wang and Fabius was part of a diplomatic flurry following the Geneva deal.

Kerry was to fly to Israel Sunday to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the agreement, and on Monday Fabius is due to host Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Paris.

In a commentary China's official news agency Xinhua echoed Fabius' "first stage" comments.

If the inspectors' work proceeded smoothly and had "broadly-recognized results" it would have "long-term positive influence", it said.

But the agreement did not rule out the possibility of military intervention, it added.

"Clouds of uncertainty loom over the deal," it said. "And concerns regarding the upcoming implementation process persist."