OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says Canada and international partners are actively monitoring the threat of terrorists getting their hands on stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in Syria.

There are reports al-Qaida is trying to hijack the Syrian revolution.

"We are concerned that there are radical undesirables coming into the country to support the revolution," Baird told reporters following a meeting with Syrian opposition members in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Syria acknowledged for the first time on Monday it possesses chemical and biological weapons. Officials said they wouldn't be used against rebels but could be used if the country faced "external aggression."

"With respect to the significant chemical and biological stockpiles, this is an issue with which I have talked closely with some of my counterparts about," Baird said.
"We are concerned about them being used against the Syrian people ... we are concerned about their security both before and after the regime would fall. This is something that has our active attention."

Baird also said Canada "can and wants to do more" to assist with humanitarian aid for Syria, but he didn't provide a dollar figure.

Canada has already committed $8.5 million in humanitarian aid since the revolution began in March 2011 but members of the Syrian opposition want Ottawa to match the U.S. contribution to humanitarian aid which is $25 million.

"We are willing to give foreign affairs the different channels and the different ways to get this money and this relief and this humanitarian aid inside Syria because they desperately need it," said Faisal al Alazem, a Syrian activist who is part of the group that met with Baird on Wednesday.

The United Nations has said $382 million is required for aid, but only a quarter of that has been pledged so far.

International pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has mounted in the last week after a rebel offensive and bomb attack killed four members of his inner circle in Damascus.

Syrian activists now estimate the death toll to be more than 19,000.