A team of UN experts has gone to Cyprus and is waiting to carry out an investigation on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, two weeks after Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon received a request from the government itself to examine the reported use by opposition forces.

But early signs show there is little chance of the group entering the country, despite Ban's best efforts to convince the government to be "flexible".

The rejection, posted on the state news agency SANA, is likely because the UN is promising to examine "all possible uses" of chemical weapons.

Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays reports from the UN's headquarters in New York.