WASHINGTON/LONDON/MOSCOW – US President Donald Trump cast doubt onThursday over the timing of his threatened strike on Syria in response to areported poison gas attack, while France said it had proof of Syria’s guiltbut needed to gather more information.

Fears of confrontation between Russia and the West have been running highsince Trump said on Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” after thesuspected chemical weapons assault in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7,and lambasted Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon ornot so soon at all!” the US president said in his latest early morningtweet on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France has proof the Syriangovernment carried out the attack, which aid groups have said killed dozensof people, and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessaryinformation has been gathered.

“We have proof that last week … chemical weapons were used, at least withchlorine, and that they were used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Macronsaid, without offering details of any evidence.

“We will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most usefuland effective,” he told broadcaster TF1.

Prime Minister Theresa May prepared to convene a special cabinet meeting at1430 GMT to weigh whether Britain should join the United States and Francein a possible military action.

May recalled ministers from their Easter holiday to debate action over whatshe has cast as a barbaric poison gas attack in Douma, then rebel-held,just east of the capital Damascus.

There were signs, though, of a global effort to head off a directconfrontation between Russia and the West. The Kremlin said a crisiscommunications link with the United States, created to avoid an accidentalclash over Syria, was in use.

“The situation in Syria is horrific, the use of chemical weapons issomething the world has to prevent,” Britain’s Brexit minister David Davissaid.

“But also it’s a very, very delicate circumstance and we’ve got to makethis judgment on a very careful, very deliberate, very well thought-throughbasis.”

There was no direct word from Russian President Vladimir Putin on thecrisis, though he discussed the situation with Turkish President TayyipErdogan by phone on Thursday, Interfax news agency said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow sought no escalation of thesituation, but that it could not support “dishonest accusations” and it hadfound no evidence of a chemical weapons attack. – Agencies