LIMASSOL (Cyprus), Dec 14: Danish and Norwegian ships can safely ferry up to 500 tons of Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons out of the strife-torn country, a Danish chemical expert said on Saturday.

Bjoern Schmidt said sealed containers full of chemical compounds, which when mixed can create lethal Sarin and VX gases, will be loaded at opposite ends of the two cargo ships.

The exact quantity of chemicals to be taken out of Syria is unknown, Schmidt said.

Cmdr Henrik Holck Rasmussen, of Danish frigate HDMS Esbern Snare, said two cargo ships will go to Syria as many times as needed to pick up all chemical weapons.

The Danish warship and Norwegian frigate HNOMS Helge Ingstad will act as escorts. Both are docked in Cyprus along with the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura.

The second cargo ship, which Norwegian shipper Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA identified as the MV Taiko, hasn’t arrived yet.

The joint UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons team in Syria aims to remove most chemical weapons from Syria by the end of the year for destruction at sea and destroy the entire program by mid-2014.

The unprecedented disarmament in the midst of a civil war was launched following an Aug 21 chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds of civilians.

Schmidt said according to plan by the OPCW which is in charge of the entire operation, the cargo ships will take the chemicals to the harbour of an as yet unidentified country where the most dangerous chemicals will be transferred onto American ship MV Cape Ray.

The ship is equipped with technology that can largely neutralise the chemicals. The process will take place at sea and the mostly inert chemicals will receive additional treatment at another facility.—AP