The U.N. Security Council on Thursday voted a final mandate for the U.S.-led international military force in Afghanistan before it withdraws at the end of 2014.

A resolution unanimously backed by the 15-nation council authorized the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to "take all necessary measures" to carry out its duties until December 31, 2014.

The U.N. Security Council called Thursday for a United Nations peacekeeping force in strife-torn Central African Republic, while France said it could reinforce its military presence there.

The 15-member council voted unanimously for a resolution urging U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon to prepare a report in 30 days on helping a small African force in the country, where rebels overthrew the president in March.

Norway has been asked to help destroy Syria's chemical arsenal as part of U.N. efforts to rid the country of its weapons of mass destruction, a report said Saturday.

Both U.S. and Russian officials have approached Norway with oral requests for help in dismantling the weapons, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said on its website.

France on Friday renewed a call for the five main U.N. Security Council powers to suspend their right to veto any resolution when a "mass crime" is committed.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was renewing the campaign because of the council's two year deadlock over the Syria war -- during which Russia has vetoed three resolutions.

China welcomed a United Nations resolution aimed at destroying Syria's chemical arms, and urged the major powers to ensure their decisions "can stand the test of history", state media reported Saturday.

Beijing was "heartened" to see the landmark U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday which ordered the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons and condemned a murderous poison gas attack in Damascus, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday criticized a hard-won U.N. Security Council resolution ordering the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal for failing to deliver justice for the conflict's victims.

"This resolution fails to ensure justice for the gassing of hundreds of children and many other grave crimes," said the New York-based watchdog's United Nations director, Philippe Bolopion.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday that long-sought peace talks aimed at bringing a political transition to Syria are tentatively planned for November.

"We are aiming for a conference in mid-November," Ban told reporters after the U.N. Security Council adopted a historic resolution to rein in Syria's chemical weapons.

The U.N. Security Council will meet at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT) on Friday for a vote on a U.S.-Russian resolution on destroying Syria's chemical weapons, the U.N. confirmed.

The meeting, which will follow adoption of a Russia-U.S. disarmament plan for Syria, was confirmed by Australia, president of the Security Council for September.

Inspection of Syrian chemical weapons sites with a view to their destruction must start by Tuesday, says a draft decision to be discussed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Friday.

Besides weapons locations declared by Damascus as part of a deal to head off threatened military strikes, inspectors will also be able to visit "any other site identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian chemical weapons program," says the draft document seen by AFP.

The U.N. Security Council passed its first resolution Thursday on restricting the trade in illicit small arms, but Russia refused to back the measure.

Russia was the only member of the 15-nation body not to support the resolution drawn up by Australia, the council's current president.