Moscow and Washington begin crucial talks Thursday on Russia's plan for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons, after President Vladimir Putin made a personal plea to the American people to reject military action.

In talks reminiscent of Cold War-era summits, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet in Geneva to pore over Moscow's plans to neutralise Syria's chemical arsenal.

Russia's shock announcement this week of a plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons up-ended US plans for military action in response to an alleged chemical attack last month by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

President Barack Obama backed away from a threat to launch airstrikes against the regime, but the United States and main backer France have warned that military action is not off the table.

Revealing details of the proposal for the first time Thursday, Russian daily Kommersant said Moscow had given Washington a four-step plan for the weapons handover.

Quoting a Russian diplomatic source, Kommersant said the plan would see Damascus join the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), declare the locations of its chemical arms, allow OPCW inspectors access and finally arrange for destruction of the arsenal.

Syria's opposition has denounced the plan as a delaying tactic, warning it will only lead to more deaths in a conflict that has already killed more than 110,000 people since March 2011.

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Graphic presenting two methods, incineration and neutralisation, used in the destruction of chemical …

The commander of the Free Syrian Army, Selim Idriss, said in a video posted on YouTube that the rebels categorically rejected the Russian plan.

Idriss told world powers they should not "be satisfied only by removing the chemical weapon, which is the tool of a crime, but judge the author of the crime before the International Criminal Court."

Ahead of the talks in Geneva, Putin took the unusual step of penning a commentary in the New York Times warning that unilateral US military action could unleash chaos.

Appealing directly to US voters and policy-makers over Obama's head, Putin wrote: "A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.

"It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance," Putin said.

Drawing on a passage in Obama's Tuesday night address that said the United States has an "exceptional" role to play, Putin said it was wrong for any power to presume a unique leadership role.

"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation," he wrote.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry departs Andrews Air Force Base in Washington for a meeting with Rus …

"We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."

Putin welcomed Washington's willingness to engage with the Moscow initiative, but warned that carrying out strikes without the approval of the United Nations Security Council, where Moscow wields a veto, would destroy the credibility of the world body.

"No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage," he said, referring to the United Nations' failed inter-war predecessor.

Russia is a traditional ally of Assad, and Moscow, backed by China, has blocked any attempt to sanction his regime through the United Nations.

Envoys from the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- held inconclusive talks on Syria at the United Nations on Wednesday.

The talks in Geneva were expected to last two to three days and also focus on revitalising efforts to call a peace conference aimed at ending Syria's civil war.

As well as Lavrov, Kerry was due to meet UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to discuss UN-backed efforts to bring the Assad regime to the table with the opposition rebels.

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Demonstrators opposed to US intervention in Syria listen to President Obama address the nation on Se …

Western officials have claimed the sudden renewal of diplomatic efforts on Syria was the result of the military threats, but have questioned whether Assad can be trusted to hand over chemical weapons.

Washington alleges that some 1,400 people died in the chemical attack on August 21 and was rallying support for a military response when the Russian proposal emerged.

Obama had been struggling to win domestic support for unilateral action and in an address to the American people on Tuesday postponed, but did not withdraw, the threat of military action.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday that a much-awaited report by UN inspectors into the attack will "probably" be published on Monday.

"It will say that there was a chemical massacre," Fabius told French radio Thursday.

In his commentary, Putin again accused Syrian rebels of being behind the attack.

"No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria," Putin wrote.

"But there is every reason to believe it was not used by the Syrian Army but by opposition forces to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons," he said.

Putin: U.S. strike could unleash chaos

The Russian leader warns in a New York Times op-ed that an attack could spur "a new wave of terrorism."

Flash Floods in Colorado

Syria chemical weapons sites being dispersed: Wall Street Journal

Free Syrian Army fighters run to take cover in the refugee camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus September 11, 2013. Picture taken September 11, 2013. REUTERS/Ward Al-Keswani

Sept 13 () - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An elite Syrian unit that runs the government's chemical arms program has been scattering the weapons to dozens of sites across the country, potentially complicating U.S. plans for air strikes, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper, citing unnamed U.S. officials and lawmakers briefed on the intelligence, said on its website on Thursday that a secretive military group known as Unit 450 had been moving the stocks around for months to help avoid detection of the weapons.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies and Middle Eastern officials still believe they know the location of most of the government's chemical weapons supply, the Journal said.

But "we know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are," one official was quoted as saying.

The United States and its allies say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces carried out a chemical weapons attack in a Damascus neighborhood on August 21 that U.S. officials say killed about 1,400 people, including 400 children. Assad and Syrian ally Russia blame rebel forces.

The United States and Russia began high-stakes talks on Thursday on Moscow's plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons as Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban.

The talks were part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold plans for U.S. air strikes in response to the suspected attack.

The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, a move Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid U.S. air strikes.

Syria's civil war has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011.

The Journal quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that Washington estimated that Damascus had 1,000 metric tons (1,102 tons) of chemical and biological agents, "although there might be more."

After traditionally storing most of its chemical and biological weapons at a few sites in western Syria, the government started dispersing the weapons about a year ago, officials said.

They added that the United States now believed the arsenal had been moved to up to 50 sites in the west, north, south and east of the country.

No decision had been made whether to target commanders of the small unit, made up of officers from Assad's Alawite sect, the paper said, quoting a senior U.S. official.

There were also no plans to bomb chemical weapons sites directly because of the potential risk that poisons could be dispersed to civilian areas, officials told the paper.

(Writing by Peter Cooney; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Report: Syria scattering chemical weapons

An elite military unit has been dispersing the arms across the country to help avoid detection, the Wall St. Journal reports.
Moved to up to 50 sites

Colorado flooding cuts off mountain towns, kills 3

LYONS, Colo. (AP) — With rain still falling and the flood threat still real, rescuers were struggling to reach dozens of people cut off by flooding in Colorado mountain communities, while residents in the Denver area and other downstream communities were warned to stay off flooded streets.

The towns of Lyons, Jamestown and others in the Rocky Mountain foothills have been isolated by flooding and without power or telephone since rain hanging over the region all week intensified late Wednesday and early Thursday. At least three people were killed and another was missing, and hundreds were forced to seek shelter up and down Colorado's populated Front Range.

In Lyons, residents took shelter on higher ground, including some at an elementary school. Although everyone was believed to be safe, the deluge was expected to continue into Friday.

"There's no way out of town. There's no way into town. So, basically, now we're just on an island," said Jason Stillman, 37, who was forced with his fiancee to evacuate their home in Lyons at about 3 a.m. after a nearby river began to overflow into the street.

Stillman, who sought shelter at a friend's house on higher ground, went back to his neighborhood in the afternoon and saw how fast-moving water had overturned cars and swept away homes at a nearby trailer park.

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A duck swims near bleachers at Utah Park on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, in Aurora, Colo. The park was …

"Water was just coming up over the bridge," he said. "All kinds of debris and trees were just slamming into the bridge. Just surreal."

The Colorado National Guard began trucking people out of Lyons on Thursday evening.

To the north, residents along the Big Thompson Canyon in Larimer County, scene of the deadliest flash flood in state history, were also evacuated. The Big Thompson River flooded in 1976 after about a foot of rain fell in just four hours, killing 144 people.

Water roaring across U.S. Highway 36 south of Lyons prevented residents from leaving the Crestview subdivision, so Howard Wachtel arranged for someone to meet him at a roadblock for a ride to a gas station. He needed more gasoline to keep his generator running so he could pump water out of his basement.

"This is more like something out of the Bible. I saw one of my neighbors building an ark," he joked, over the sound of the rushing water.

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Brian Flynn, of Oregon, clears a drain in front of his sister's home in Boulder, Colo., on Thursday, …

President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration Thursday night, freeing federal aid and allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.

The rain has been produced by a low pressure system that has been stationed over Nevada since late Sunday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Dankers in Boulder.

The low has drawn subtropical moisture from the Mexican mainland over New Mexico and into the Rockies' foothills in Colorado — and it's been trapped by a stationary upper level ridge over the Great Plains and another system over the Great Lakes, Dankers said. The moisture becomes rain when it hits the mountains, the end result of a system he described as "a monsoon conveyer belt."

So-called monsoon rains common to Colorado usually occur in late July and August and are typically brief events that provide welcome moisture to a normally sunny, arid state.

Some of the flooding was exacerbated by wildfire "burn scars" that have spawned flash floods all summer in the mountains. That was particularly true in an area scarred by fire in 2010 near the tiny community of Jamestown and another near Colorado Springs' Waldo Canyon that was hit in 2012.

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Local residents look over a road washed out by a torrent of water following overnight flash flooding …

Rain is normally soaked up by a sponge-like layer of pine needles and twigs on the forest floor. But wildfires incinerate that layer and leave a residue in the top layer of soil that sheds water. A relatively light rain can rush down charred hillsides into streambeds, picking up dirt, ash, rocks and tree limbs along the way. Narrow canyons aggravate the threat.

The University of Colorado canceled classes at least through Friday after a quarter of its buildings were flooded. Students in family housing near Boulder Creek were also forced to leave.

One person was killed when a structure collapsed in the tiny town of Jamestown northwest of Boulder. Another man drowned in flood waters north of Boulder early Thursday and a woman who was with him was missing.

The woman was swept away after the vehicle she was riding in got stuck in water. The man died after getting out of the vehicle to help her, Commander Heidi Prentup of the Boulder Sheriff's Office said.

A firefighter that had been trapped in a tree in Lefthand Canyon by flooding was rescued and treated, she said.

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John Shada, of Manitou Springs, Colo., takes a photo of flood water as it shoots out of a sewer on C …

To the south, Colorado Springs police conducting flood patrols found the body of 54-year-old Danny Davis in Fountain Creek on the west side of the city.

At least one earthen dam gave way southeast of Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Water levels could rise downstream as authorities release more water to ease pressure on dams. With debris piling up near bridges, downstream farming areas including Fort Lupton, Dacono and Plateville were also at risk.

In rural Morgan County, authorities urged ranchers to move cattle to higher ground as the mountain rains emptied onto the plains.

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Associated Press writers Colleen Slevin, Steven K. Paulson, Mead Gruver and Thomas Peipert contributed to this report.

Deadly Colorado floods worsen

Record rains pound the state overnight forcing thousands more residents to flee to higher ground. At least 3 people killed