Trump suggests he may delay attack on Syria

Donald Trump has suggested he may decide to delay reprisals against Syria following its suspected use of chemical weapons.

After Tweeting yesterday that an attack would come, he followed up today by commenting on the social network: "Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!"

Trump and Western allies have been discussing how to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces.

A unilateral military strike like the one ordered last year from US navy ships in the Mediterranean on a Syrian airbase is a possibility but France and the UK could be involved this time according to Robert Burns, Associated Press' National Security expert.

"Part of the question that is sort of hanging out there is what would really be the underlying goal of a strike other than to simply be shown to be responding? Would it actually accomplish something militarily or politically or would it make more sense to include other coalition members, other allied countries, like France as part of an operation, or should it be unilateral like it was a year ago," said Burns.

Assad's government and Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.