The US President welcomes the plan to destroy Syria's chemical stash but says he is still "prepared to act" if diplomacy fails.
US President Barack Obama has indicated that the threat of military action remains should Syria fail to comply with a plan to destroy its chemical weapons.
Mr Obama welcomed the newly-brokered US and Russian plan, calling it an "important, concrete step", but warned that "if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act".
In a statement, he said the diplomatic solution was working partly due to America's "credible threat" of military force.
He also told the US public, in a television address, that the country would "maintain our military posture in the region to keep the pressure on the Assad regime".
The US and Russia have now given Syria one week to submit a "comprehensive list" of its chemical weapons stockpiles - otherwise, the US will seek a UN resolution that could still authorise strikes.
On their final day of talks in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that once the details had been handed over the Assad regime would have until November to allow UN inspectors access to the sites.
Destruction of the regime's chemical weapons must then be complete by mid-2014.