Final destruction of Syrian chemicals slides to end June

The Field Deployable Hydrolysis System used to destroy and neutralize chemical weapons is watched by U.S. Navy Commander Bill Speaks as it sits aboard the MV Cape Ray before its deployment from the NASSC0-Earl Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, January 2, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing

ROME (Reuters) - The removal and destruction of the most dangerous agents in Syria's chemical arsenal may not be completed until the end of June because of logistical and security problems, the head of the U.N. chemicals watchdog said on Thursday.

The destruction of "primary" chemicals - mustard gas and the components for making Sarin and VX - had originally been foreseen completed by the end of March, but the civil war, bad weather and bureaucracy have slowed it.